Pixie Skase, wife of fugitive businessman, dies in Melbourne

Socialite Pixie Skase, and the widow of disgraced businessman and fugitive Christopher Skase, has died.

Her daughter Amanda Larkins confirmed the 83-year-old’s death via social media on Tuesday.

“Our beloved beautiful mother Pixie passed away peacefully on Friday afternoon, the 15th of November,” she wrote.

“We have had no words to express our loss, and still don’t. She was greatly loved and leaves a hole in our hearts.”

Skase grew up in Balwyn North, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, and attended high school at Methodist Ladies College in Kew.

She was known for her lavish parties and celebrations in Melbourne, but everything fell apart when her husband’s business, Quintex, collapsed.

Chistopher Skase and wife Pixie in 1989.

They fled to Spain in 1991 after Skase’s business collapsed with personal debts of $170 million and corporate debts of $1.7 billion.

His empire at its height included the Seven Network, an AFL club and the lavish Mirage resort at Port Douglas.

He died of stomach cancer while living in Spain in 2001. Skase kept a low profile after returning to Melbourne in 2009.

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In 2018, the socialite sold off their collection of excesses of the 1980s, including a Hermes library ladder, a fossil, ashtrays and a monogrammed briefcase.

One curio is a 1953 oil painting of a girl, believed to be Pixie Skase, by Australian artist Archibald Douglas Colquhoun. More than 40 jewellery items, including an 18-carat gold, emerald and diamond ring valued at $3000 to $5000 were also sold.

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