HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR THIS VILLA ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA?
$5m?
$10m?
$20m?
Mystery tycoon pays $1b
IT is listed as one of the most desirable residences in the world.
13 August 2008
IT is listed as one of the most desirable residences in the world.
Villa Leopolda, the sumptuous villa on the French Riviera, has become the world's most expensive house after a mysterious Russian billionaire bought it for £390 million ($1.05 billion).
The Russian clinched the deal with Lily Safra, the widow of Edmond Safra, a Lebanese banker who was killed by an arsonist's fire in Switzerland in 2003.
She will move out next month.
Mr Safra, the founder of the Republic Bank of New York, bought the villa in 1999. The amount is not known.
The previous record for a house was said to be the £pounds;57 million that Lakshmi Mittal, the steel tycoon, paid for a property in Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004.
The Leopolda villa, with its turreted mansion and two guest houses, is set in 8ha of rolling grounds.
It is dotted with more than a thousand olive, lemon and orange trees, and was built at the turn of the 20th century by the Belgian king Leopold II, The Times London reported.
Its gardens are tended by 50 gardeners.
The villa has a colourful history.
It was a hospital for treating soldiers injured in World War I before becoming the 1950s summer holiday home of the Fiat boss Giovanni Agnelli.
Regulars at parties in the Agnelli years there included Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan.
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