Was flipping through a Forbes magazine today and came across this rug (a Russian billionaire)...looks like a really nice rug, sort of kills me to see furniture and shoes on it. Can anyone tell what sort of rug it is from this picture?

Yes, it is a quite rare octogonal persian silk qum (ghom). There is one like this but in different color at:
http://www.oriental-carp...fc88c9df3e7d10a/id/45794

The rug will not get ruined by the furniture - silk qum rugs can take quite a lot traffic, they are very durable. I do recommend rug pads for all rugs. Silk rugs and Kelim rugs need rug pads to keep them in place. A rug pad is not saving the rug. I found this argument a lot on rug pad adds. But I thing this just an argument to sell the rug pad. I recommend rug pads for security reasons, so no one falls when a rug slides away. American customers prefer think rug pads, because they like the soft feeling when walking over the rug. I prefer very thin rug pads.
It is possible to make rugs in any shape, but it is more difficult and will rise the price a lot.

Wow, I just checked out some of the other rugs on that link..."Eye Candy"...Thanks all for sharing the seamingless supply of knowledge.

Shereen, it is right, I would also prefer the blue qum, it is far more interesting in design and color. The rugs on this site give a good idea about todays market prices for high grade rugs. Most of the time ebay is the scale on the evaluation of rugs. This might be right for low grade used rugs, and sometimes you can find a real good deal from private sellers, but most rugs sold by many dealers have nothing great than a cheap price. Looking at sites like the one linked brings the eye to the more outstanding pieces of persian art. Also there is no "This is a Ghom Nain Isfahan from India Iran.." story. Description is correct, since the reputated sellers dont need to tell tales from 1001 night.
Even it does not fit to this post, I would like to share another site I personally like a lot because the owners have a great taste and knowledge about rugs. I am in the rug business since my childhood and grew up with this art. So I have a different judgement about who loves rugs or who just sells them. They are defenetly rug lovers: http://www.internetrugs.com. - for me one of the real good sites in USA.

As KAD mentioned, rugs without rugpads can be slippery. Especially if you have them on wooden or tile floors (and not on wall-to-wall carpet, which I personally find abominable, but it's like a wall-to-wall rug pad, I imagine), and children, older people or anyone careless living in your house or visiting, they can easily slip on the rug (the rug moving with them when they move fast), and fall, and sustain serious injuries.

On a lighter note, my cat used to "rug surf" when she was younger: I had this 3x6 fine weave Balouch in the hallway, and she would run towards it, then jump on it and slide with it a foot (30cm) or so. She'd do that again and again. With rug pad impossible.

The feedback we've normally got is most rugs are ok without a pad but the most problematic are often those placed on top of carpet, these can wrinkle up and normal rug padding often doesn't work. You can get special carpet to rug padding which is specifically designed to stop the problem. How did this thread jump from a billionaires rug to rug pads anyway?!

I agree with KAD. This is qum.