NEW YORK - If you've always wanted
to live like an Italian heiress, supermodel, pop star and wife
of a European head of state, there's a castle on the market in
Turin that might be worth a look.
The historic home in the Italian hills where French first
lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy spent her early childhood is staking a
"for sale" sign once again, just months after a Saudi
billionaire bought the palatial property for $25 million.
Castello di (the castle at) Castagneto Po is in the hills
northeast of Turin where Bruni-Sarkozy lived before the family
relocated to Paris in the early 1970s as Marxist guerrilla
groups struck fear among Italy's elite. It was sold by the
family earlier this year.
Saudi Arabia's billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin
Talal, who is listed by Forbes as one of the world's wealthiest
men, is now flipping the 21,000-square foot castle, never
having moved in, for about 19 million Euros ($28 million).
Christie's Great Estates, a subsidiary of the art auction
house, is slated to announce the listing in coming days.
Bruni's father, Italian industrialist Alberto Bruni
Tedeschi, bought the 40-room castle, which dates back nearly
1,000 years, in 1952 and had it extensively restored and
lavishly appointed.
Tedeschi died in 1996. Bruni-Sarkozy -- a former model and
now singer who married French President Nicolas Sarkozy last
year -- her mother and her sister first sold the castle's
contents at auction and then the house itself.
"We had finished with Castagneto Po. Nobody went there any
more," said Bruni's mother Marisa Bruni Tedeschi at the time.
Surrounded by some 175 acres (70 hectares) replete with
vegetable gardens, orchards, flowering terraces, ancient
greenhouses, a caretaker's house and a farm building, the
castle was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style ending in 1835, having
been destroyed in 1705 following two centuries of French army
invasions.
"The grandeur of Castle Castagneto Po is unrivaled in
Northern Italy," said Giancarlo Bracco, founder of Christie's
Great Estates' Italian affiliate ImmobilSarda s.r.l., which is
handling the sale.
Its imposing facade conjures images of fairy tale
princesses -- or real-life Italian supermodel-pop star-first
ladies.