Вилла Леопольда и убийство в пентхаусе в Монако

Built over a century ago, Villa La Leopolda stands on a 50-acre estate in Вильфранш-сюр-Мер, on some of the most expensive land on the French Riviera. Described as the third-largest home in the world, the sprawling property has 19 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, multiple swimming pools, a bowling alley, a movie theater and an twenty-acre orchard of olive and fruit trees that require a team of 50 full-time gardeners just to care for it. The villa is not only known to have the best sea views in the south of France, but it also sits on 10 acres of immaculate grounds.

The villa was purchased by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1902, and he used it with his teenage prostitute mistress. Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, баронна де Вон (Baroness Vaughan), as well as gifting her Villa Leopolda in 1902. Here’s their sordid story.

During WWI, La Leopolda served as a military hospital. In the 1930s, the villa was significantly expanded by the new owner – American millionaire Ogden Codman, and is still the largest in the area. In 1955, Alfred Hitchcock filmed his ironic detective Catch a Thief, в главных ролях Кэри Грант и Грейс Келли на вилле.

После смерти Кодмана в 1951 году поместье было продано Айзеку Уолтону Килламу, чья жена унаследовала это место после его смерти. В конце 1950-х годов она продала его президенту Fiat Джанни Аньелли (1921–2003) и Марелле Аньелли. Аньелли продали виллу Leopolda канадскому филантропу Дороти Дж. Киллам в 1963 году. Киллам жила на вилле до своей смерти в 1965 году.

In the 1980s the property passed from the hands of Fiat and Ferrari’s CEO, into the hands of a wealthy Lebanese-Monegasque banker Edmond Safra and his Brazilian wife Lily Safra. Они жили в Монако и использовали это поместье для проведения невероятно роскошных вечеринок.

The publisher John Fairchild later wrote about one of the Safra’s lavish parties in his book Шикарные дикари and described the occasion as “the ultimate in conspicuous consumption.” At one of their parties, female guests were reportedly given ornate enameled boxes featuring a portrait of the villa. The president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Prince Charles, and Prince Rainier III visited the Safra’s at the villa.

Lily and Edmond Safra’s story is one that’s almost too crazy to believe. In 1969, Lily’s second husband, the wealthy Brazilian entrepreneur Alfredo Monteverde, died from two gunshots to the chest, after returning from a lunch with Lily, where they had discussed divorce proceedings. На тот момент следователи извлекли только одну пулю и не обнаружили на месте происшествия пороха на его руках. Детективы быстро «потеряли» две основные улики (пистолет и единственную пулю) и признали это «самоубийством», что Лили не оспаривала.

К большому разочарованию его детей, которые утверждают, что их отца убили, а завещание было подделано, Лили сохранил свой весь удача, все его активы и его бизнес (который она продала более чем за 350 миллионов долларов), с помощью Эдмонда Сафры, который был банкиром ее покойного мужа (а теперь и ее). Вот как они с Эдмондом познакомились.

Братья Сафры (которые также были его деловыми партнерами) не хотели, чтобы он женился на ней. Она не только вышла из детородного возраста, но и находилась под подозрением в смерти мужа. Эдмонд послушал братьев и разорвал отношения, вернувшись в Нью-Йорк.

Эдмонд был четвертым мужем Лили (все очень богатые), и она во второй раз овдовела.

However, something clicked in Edmond and he and Lily were back together by the winter of 1972. Most attribute the change of heart to his discovery of Lily’s third marriage to Moroccan businessman Samuel H. Bendahan, which transpired not long after their initial breakup. Although the marriage only lasted two months, it was enough to catch Edmond’s eye and the two were formally married in 1976. Their pre-nuptial agreement was 600-pages long.

Edmond Safra was murdered in a fire (with mysterious circumstances — the full truth of which is still unknown) in their two-story waterfront Monte Carlo penthouse in 1999, and Lily Safra (who escaped through a window and whose net worth is now estimated at $1.2 billion) still owns the villa. Rumors still circulate about who killed her husband, with some suspecting Lily, and others suspecting the Russia mafia (stemming from the rumors that American Express spread, which you can read about in this book).

Незадолго до своей смерти он заработал миллиарды, продав свой Trade Development Bank и New York's Republic National Bank банку HSBC. Это был 4-й брак Лили, и она унаследовала более €4 млрд, когда Эдмонд умер.

You can read the whole story in this biography. The biography of Lily Safra, which was written by a professional investigative journalist over the course of 5 years researching in Brazil, was blocked from being sold in Brasil.

Russian billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorovпредпринял несколько попыток купить виллу Леопольда у Лили Сафра, прежде чем она, наконец, приняла его предложение за 370 миллионов евро (плюс 19,5 миллионов евро за мебель виллы) летом 2008 года.

Prokhorov attempted to withdraw from the sale in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which led to a lawsuit between Prokhorov and Safra over the €39 million deposit that he had paid on the villa. A French court ruled against Prokhorov in November 2012 with Safra subsequently announcing that she would donate his deposit to various global charities.

Prokhorov would later deny that he had bought the property, with his spokesperson saying that he had refused to do business in France after his 2007 detention by French police for allegedly providing prostitutes for guests at Courchevel, the ski resort in the French Alps.

Most recently, Lily still had Monaco residency but reportedly spent most of her time in London. According to her biography, she was not in contact with any of her four children. The billionaire died alone, in 2022, at age 87.

Хочу больше? Вот список известных вилл, знаменитости, которым они принадлежали, и сумасшедшие вещи, которые там происходили.