http://massmediang.com/property-the-mystery-of-who-owns-the-worlds-most-expensive-house-which-cost-300-million-has-finally-been-solved/

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Chateau Louis XIV, located about 15 minutes outside the Parisian neighborhood of Triangle d’Or, broke the world record for most expensive home in 2015. No one knew who purchased the property at that time. But the mystery has just been solved.

The villa was developed by the “haute-couture” estate designer Cogemad and brokered by Christie’s International Real Estate, Bloomberg reports. It was said to have been sold to an anonymous Middle Eastern buyer for more than $301 million. The previous world record holder was a London penthouse that sold for the considerably lower price of $221 million.

The Chateau, which lies on 56 acres of land, blends 17th century-inspired design with cutting edge technology, according to Cogemad’s website. The high-tech controls are supposedly indistinguishable from the decor. Household amenities include an aquarium, a movie theater, a wine cellar, a gold-leafed fountain, and even a hedged labyrinth.

The month before her wedding to Kanye West in Florence in May of 2014, Kim Kardashian headed to the north of France, not far from Versailles, to visit the Chateau Louis XIV—a potential wedding venue with moats, an underground nightclub, a ballroom, a labyrinth, an underwater room with glass walls, and a movie theater that the couple eventually passed on in favor of a 16th-century fortress for their nuptials. The Chateau is, after all, a bit deceptive when it comes to its history: despite its thorough resemblance to a 17th-century estate, the original property was in fact bulldozed in 2009 and recreated by 2011, making it modern-day enough that its air conditioning and many fountains can be controlled by an iPhone.

All that might not have been quaint enough for Kim and Kanye, but it was definitely just fine for the mysterious person who bought the chateau for $300 million in 2015—thereby giving it the title of the world’s most expensive house—who until now has remained a mystery. This weekend, however, the New York Timesreported that the buyer was in fact Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne who’s been behind a recent major crackdown on corruption and embezzlement amounting to billions in Saudia Arabia that has so far detained at least 200 people.

The purchase is even more incongruous for someone preaching thriftiness given that Crown Prince Mohammed himself has been criticized for his spending habits, reportedly forking over $450 million for Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi—thereby giving it the title of the world’s most expensive painting—as well as making impulse purchases like a yacht complete with two swimming pools that cost him half a billion dollars. He definitely has a better view of the water when he’s safely on land in France, though, as Kardashian evidenced when she made her visit.

Then again, Crown Prince Mohammed, who’s only 32 years old, is simply keeping with tradition amongst much of the Saudi royalty: He’s the favored son of King Salman, who’s lately put a team to work at building him a massive vacation compound on the coast of Morocco.

Source:

wmagazine.com