Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg has acquired a 50% stake in the historic Villa Feltrinelli building for EUR 40 mln. The Villa was sold by the American investor Bob Burns to Vekselberg's energy company Renova. It is understood that the front-runners in the bid for the Villa were Viktor Vekselberg, who ranked 44 in Forbes' list of the world's richest people in 2006, and Roman Abramovic, also listed by Forbes magazine as the richest man in Russia and owner of English's Chelsea football club.
Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg has acquired a 50% stake in the historic Villa Feltrinelli building for EUR 40 mln. The Villa was sold by the American investor Bob Burns to Vekselberg's energy company Renova. It is understood that the front-runners in the bid for the Villa were Viktor Vekselberg, who ranked 44 in Forbes' list of the world's richest people in 2006, and Roman Abramovic, also listed by Forbes magazine as the richest man in Russia and owner of English's Chelsea football club.
The landmark Villa, located in Gargnano, on the Garda lake, offers 21 distinctive guestrooms and suites surrounded with a eight-acre park. Built in 1892, Feltrinelli building was designed by the Italian architect Alberico Barbiano di Belgioioso in a Liberty style and served as a holiday residence for the Feltrinelli family. Valued at EUR 87 mln, the property housed the exiled Benito Mussolini in 1945, and was thereafter transformed into a Grand Hotel. In 1997, Bob Burns bought it with the vision of bringing it back to its former splendour, Italian newspaper QuotidianoImmobiliare reported.
