Monday 18 December 2017

World's most expensive home : A mansion fit for a Crown Prince

Chateau Louis XIV became the world's most expensive home when it sold for $300million back in 2015, and now the buyer has been revealed as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Chateau Louis XIV became the most expensive property in the world when it sold for $300million. 
  • It features a wine cellar, home theatre, a moat filled with koi carp and an underwater viewing chamber 
  • The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, was revealed as the buyer of a French chateau that became the world's most expensive property when it sold for $300million in 2015.

  • The prince was also behind the recent purchase of Leonardo Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi which became the most expensive artwork ever sold when it changed hands for $450million earlier this month.

  • Salman is also preaching financial austerity as he attempts to move the kingdom away from dependency on oil as part of a reform project dubbed Vision 2030
  •     Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

  • The property is surrounded by landscaped gardens which feature a statue of statue of former French monarch Louis XIV, or Louis the Great, who ruled the country for a record 72 years and whose love of opulence inspired the creation
  • The property is surrounded by landscaped gardens which feature a statue of former French monarch Louis XIV, or Louis the Great, who ruled the country for a record 72 years and whose love of opulence inspired the creation

  • The property features an underwater viewing tank submerged in the koi carp-filled moat

  • Salman was revealed as the estate's buyer at a time when he is cracking down on what he described as corruption among the country's elite.


  • Hundreds of the kingdom's most prominent and wealthiest individuals have been detained at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, with many saying they have been told to cough up huge sums of money in return for freedom.
    Salman has said he hopes to raise $100billion from seizing what he claims are ill-gotten gains.
    The prince is also overseeing a reformation project dubbed Vision 2030 which will see the kingdom diversify away from oil while seeking to balance the government accounts.
    Also on his agenda is curtailing Saudi's powerful Islamic clerics by moving toward a more moderate form of Islam, including allowing women to drive and licencing cinemas to reopen.

  • Advisers to the Saudi royal family said that the chateau ultimately belongs to Salman, who is currently running a sweeping corruption probe in his home country which has seen hundreds of wealthy people jailed


  • Salman's identity was concealed at the time using a string of shell companies based in France and Luxembourg, but their owner is Eight Investment Company which manages wealth on behalf of the Saudi royals

  • The property was completed in 2011 and is kitted out to resemble a 17th Century French mansion, with a huge ceiling fresco. 


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