The villa, set within a 10-acre property, is located within the French town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Monaco. It was built in 1902 and was eponymously named by its original owner, King Leopold II of Belgium. With its 19 bedrooms, ornate ballrooms and acres of lush green grounds that are tended to by a team of 50 gardeners, the house is said to be the very finest in all of France.
Unfortunately Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man, had to pull out on the much-reported deal after seeing a good portion of his amassed fortune lost in the current global recession. But the saga is far from over as Lily Safra refuses to hand back the oligarch’s 60 million USD deposit. Though his lawyers continue to seek the refund they’d best write off the money as French law states that purchasers lose their deposits should they pull out after a sales agreement has been signed.
