Villa Leopolda sold for a record 500 million euros

Paris - A mysterious Russian billionaire outbid his competitors, who were interested in a luxury villa on the French Riviera. With his offer of 500 million euros (over 12 billion crowns), he set a new world record. No one before him has paid so much for a house, the British newspaper The Times reported today on its website.
    The price for the grand estate named Villa Leopolda surprised real estate agents and also, according to the newspaper, confirmed the concerns of locals that the influx of Russian money on the Côte d'Azur is out of control. Since the early 1990s, Russian oligarchs have been inspired by the former imperial aristocracy, which favored this area. Russians already own properties in Cap Ferrat, Cap d'Antibes, Saint-Tropez, and several other locations.
    None of the interested parties even remotely approached the final amount. The house, purchased in 1902 by Belgian King Leopold II, was sold by the widow of Lebanese banker Lily Safra. Her husband Edmond died in Switzerland in 2003 in a fire started by an arsonist.
    The previous record for spending on a house was held by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. In 2004, he did not hesitate to pay 57 million pounds (almost 1.8 billion crowns) for a property on London's private street Kensington Palace Gardens.
    The large sums that oligarchs are willing to spend leave real estate agents dizzy. "We no longer dare to offer these clients anything below 100 million euros (2.4 billion crowns). Anything cheaper and you'll be thrown out... and you should see how they do it," one agent told the French newspaper Le Parisien, noting that real estate offices are putting Russian purchases in difficult positions.
    Local residents observe Russian pastimes with confusion. "I attended a celebration where guests were entertained by throwing burning banknotes worth 500 euros (12,000 crowns) into the air," said a woman named Pierrette, who works as a housekeeper for a certain Russian.