Villa Leopolda: World Most Expensive Villa Sold For €496 Million

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov with his new villa

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has bought the world's most expensive villa, a former royal palace, on the French Riviera for nearly half a billion euros. Villa Leopolda, built in 1902 for Belgian king Leopold II near Cap Ferrat, not far from Nice and Monaco, was sold to the former head of Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel for 496 million euros (730 million dollars), Nice Matin newspaper reported Saturday.

Earlier owners include the late Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat, Giovanni Agnelli, and Lebanese-born Swiss banker Edmond Safra, whose widow Lily Safra was now selling the property. Safra died at his Monaco home in 1999 in a fire that was deemed arson.

Forbes magazine has ranked Prokhorov's 19.5-billion-dollar fortunes sixth in Russia and 24th worldwide.

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