The Chateau Louis XIV is set in a 57-acre landscaped park. The developer bulldozed a 19th-century castle in Louveciennes to make way for the new chateau in 2009. Credit Charles Platiau/Reuters
New York Times: World’s Most Expensive Home? Another Bauble for a Saudi Prince
A $300 million chateau is one of a string of extravagant purchases for a prince who is cracking down on ill-gotten wealth and preaching fiscal austerity.
LOUVECIENNES, France — When the Chateau Louis XIV sold for over $300 million two years ago, Fortune magazine called it “the world’s most expensive home,” and Town & Country swooned over its gold-leafed fountain, marble statues and hedged labyrinth set in a 57-acre landscaped park. But for all the lavish details, one fact was missing: the identity of the buyer.
Now, it turns out that the paper trail leads to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi throne and the driving force behind a series of bold policies transforming Saudi Arabia and shaking up the Middle East.
The 2015 purchase appears to be one of several extravagant acquisitions — including a $500 million yacht and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting — by a prince who is leading a sweeping crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the Saudi elite and preaching fiscal austerity at home.
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1 comment:
Very Disappointing.
At least Versailles had a purpose.
It was a guilded cage to keep watch on the nobility to tamp down on plots.
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