The sun was still high enough to be piercing the stained glass windows of Milan Cathedral when Sting and Elton John stood together in front of the high altar and embarked on an unaccompanied rendering of the Twenty-third Psalm. As they sang - a bit croakily at first - a stream of Gianni Versace's friends, relatives and colleagues, including some of the world's best-dressed and most beautiful women, came up to take communion.
It was always going to be a strange meeting of worlds, this. A few minutes before the start of yesterday evening's Requiem Mass, Elton John, sitting in the front row, began to weep. At first he was comforted by Diana, Princess of Wales, who was sitting next to him. Then his companion, sitting on the other side, put his arm around him, patted him, hugged him and ended by leaning his head on the singer's shoulder as the princess stared fixedly at the floor.
The princess had said after Versace's shooting that she was devastated by his death. The friendship they enjoyed was symbolised by his creation of a special handbag style which he named the "Lady Di".
The challenge facing the organisers of yesterday's event was a not inconsiderable one: how to make a solemn occasion out of a ceremony attended by some of the world's outlandish designers and enough models to fill a catwalk and a half. In the event, they made as good a job of it as anyone had a right to expect.
There were no forced references to what the late designer did for a living. The only, perhaps unintentional, allusion came in a reading from Luke: "Be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning. . .because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
In the same vein the Canon of Milan Cathedral, Dr Angelo Majo, said of the murdered couturier that he was one whom "a cruel death has torn away from his family, friends and colleagues, still unbelieving of a death as tragic as it was unexpected".
The lesson was read by the choreographer Maurice Bejart, in a strong, almost belligerent voice that only faltered and then broke on the last words.
The more than 2,000 people who crowded into the cathedral were not the only ones mourning Gianni Versace in Milan yesterday. Shops in the centre lowered their shutters during the service and in the quadrilatero, the district packed with boutiques and showrooms which is the heart of the Milan fashion world, all business stopped for the 60 minutes the service lasted.
Since morning, those who wished to pay their last respects to the 50-year-old designer were able to enter his house in the quadrilatero where the gilded casket holding his ashes was put on display.
Young men dressed in white shirts and maroon ties guarded the entrance to No 12 Via Jesu and ushered mourners across the cobbled courtyard into Versace's house.
In a ground-floor room lit only by two candelabra, the murdered designer's ashes were flanked by seven candles that stood either side of a lace-draped table that looked more like an altar. There were bowls overflowing with white roses, and also a single white rose placed there earlier in the day by Naomi Campbell, who entered the house in tears.
A little crucifix had been propped in front of the casket. To one side, there was a framed picture of the dead man. On the other, a copy of his book, ironically entitled Do Not Disturb. It was not kitsch, exactly. But it was a long way from the dignity and simplicity of the service in the cathedral. - (Guardian Service)
Reuter adds: The family fashion empire of designer Gianni Versace, shot dead in Miami a week and a half ago, had insured his life for $21 million (£13 million) with Lloyds of London, the insurance group said yesterday.
A Lloyds spokesman said that Versace's insurance was a so-called "key man policy", routinely taken out by companies on an individual to which the firm's financial future is linked.
Meanwhile Florida police investigating the murder were reported to have said the gun used to kill Versace was also used in two of four other killings linked to Andrew Cunanan, a homosexual prostitute thought to have gone on the run.
Police this week said they had found items in a red pick-up truck believed to have been stolen by Cunanan that link him to another murder victim, Chicago businessman Lee Miglin. Miglin's car insurance documents, keys to his 1994 Lexus sedan, a first-aid kit and personal items were found in the truck parked several blocks away from Versace's Miami Beach home. Authorities say they believe Cunanan stole Miglin's car after killing him on May 3rd. Miglin was found the next day with his throat slashed.
After the FBI set up a hotline at its Washington regional office on Sunday, sightings of Cunanan came from all over the country, including a gay bar in Reno, Nevada, and a bus in New York.