Despite once being the most expensive home in the world, Davide Campari-Milano, on behalf of the property owning Campari Foundation, decided to take a 43% price cut on the nearly 200-year-old palatial mansion in the town of Saint Jean-Cap-Ferrai on the coast of the French Riviera and sell at $221M.
According to Fortune’s writer Brenda Richardson, “After the sale, the Villa is intended for private use.” The buyer was undisclosed.
The fourteen-bedroom mansion, known as Le Villa Les Cedres because of the many cedar trees on the 35-acre botanical garden that was created and curated over nearly a century, was built in 1830. The Belgian King Leopold II and his family owned the mansion from 1865 – 1909 before selling it to the Marnier-Laposta family, creators of Grand Marnier, in the 1920’s, according to BloombergNews.
Forbes Magazine called the mansion one that “…combines history, luxury, and prince coastal…” with its Olympic-sized pool, large stable, decadent interiors (ginormous crystal chandeliers, intricate gild3d woodwork and 19thC paintings) fit for the opulence of the home’s Belle Epoque heyday.”
The Campari Group bought the villa as part of its acquisition of the Grand Marnier liquor in 2016. The Campari Group put the estate back on the market for sale almost immediately after buying it.
If not still the most expensive home in the world, the villa is one of the most expensive in France though still shy of the $75M Euros paid by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a chateau located in the suburbs of Paris.
Even with the 43% discount on the purchase price of the villa, the Campari Group will net a clean $88M from the sale of this historic property. The Campari Group stated, “With this disposal, the divestment of ‘non-core’ assets related to the Grand Marnier acquisition is virtually complete.”
