Monday, 4 February 2013
On the heels of the spine-tingling—and record breaking—news that Bay Area financier Tully Friedman sold his nearly nine acre Woodside (CA) estate to multi-billionaire Japanese businessman Masayoshi San for $117,500,000 along comes a much larger and far more storied 47.4-acre spread in nearby Hillsborough with an toe curling asking price of $100,000,000.
Although the largely wooded estate, situated about 20 minutes south of San Francisco, has been owned by the family of it's current shepherd, Christian de Guigné IV, for the last 150 years, the opulent and downright correct Mediterranean villa was originally designed in 1916 by the esteemed San Francisco architects Walter Bliss and William Faville. The existing residence currently weighs in with seven bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms—plus half a dozen or more staff rooms, a ballroom and a flower arranging room—in about 16,000 square feet of decorative decadence dreamed up and done done done by decorator Anthony Hail.
As the always on top of things kids at Curbed noted, there's a bit of a twist: 75-year old Mister de Guigné the Fourth wishes to retain a life estate on the property, a stipulation that would allow him to occupy the main manse for the remainder of his life. Now, children, let's get real. What bazillionaire buyer willing to drop anywhere close to a hundred million damn clams is gonna go for that sort of thing?
listing photo: Sotheby's International Realty
