Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania’s last communist ruler, favored gilded Balkan kitsch in his many palaces, with mismatched charcoal and pink interiors, leopard skin everywhere, rococo bathrooms with odd body-cleansing gadgets and gaudy chandeliers as big as cars. Colonel Gaddafi sprang onto a huge gold couch that was shaped like a mermaid and depicted his daughter’s face. Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic spent a quarter of his country’s total budget in 1977 on
