Mystery Buyer Snags World's Most Expensive Home

According to HauteLiving.com:

A sprawling mansion on the French Riviera recently acquired the title of world’s priciest home after an unnamed buyer shelled out $750 million for the property. Villa Leopolda, a Belle Apoque mansion nestled on the hills of Villefrance between Nice and Monaco, once belonged to King Leopold II of Belgium. The property’s most recent owner Lily Safra, widow of Edmond Safra, a Lebanese banker who died in an arsonist’s fire in 2003, reportedly waited months as the buyer’s bids continued to increase. The purchase is part of a growing trend of wealthy Russian oligarchs occupying lavish properties on the Cote d’Azur. Villa Leopolda’s price tag shattered the previous record for world’s most expensive home, a property in Kensington Palace Gardens sold for $110 million in 2004 to steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal.

Moscow on the Hudson

In this summer of high-end real-estate purgatory, New York real-estate circles are abuzz over some good news. In early July, a town house on a gilded block of East 64th Street changed hands for $42.5 million. The buyer hasn't been publicly identified. But speculation is centering on Leonard Blavatnik, a Russian oil magnate who last fall paid $50 million to buy the neighboring house from Seagram's heir Edgar Bronfman Jr.

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