--- title: The Mystery Owner Of This $300M French Chateau Has Been Revealed description: Saudi Prince buys one of world's most expensive homes. authors: - name: Shaina Mishkin url: https://money.com/author/shaina-mishkin/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 131 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Economy and Politics - Investing - Lifestyle - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology former_staff: true published: '2017-12-18T19:57:39.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T07:28:09.000Z' section: Housing tags: - real estate word_count: 287 canonical: https://money.com/most-expensive-house/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A luxurious private house is seen in an aerial view in Louveciennes, near Paris](https://img.money.com/2017/12/171218-expensive-house.jpg) *An aerial view of a luxurious private house in Louveciennes, near Paris July 14, 2011. The Chateau Louis XIV is a brand new luxurious private property inspired by the Chateau of Vaux le Vicomte near Paris.* When Chateau Louis XIV sold for 275 million euros, or about $300 million, in 2015, the purchase seemed like something out of a fairytale. The mansion in Louveciennes, France, which *Bloomberg* called the world's priciest home, is reminiscent of an enchanted castle, complete with moat, hedged labyrinth, gold-leafed fountain -- and a mysterious buyer. Two years after the sale, the buyer is no longer a mystery. According to [*The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/world/middleeast/saudi-prince-chateau.html), the owner of the chateau is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a Saudi prince who used several shell companies to purchase the estate. Think the Crown Prince's name sounds familiar? If you haven't heard about the prince's [rule over Saudi Arabian politics](https://time.com/5068500/how-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-upending-old-orde/), maybe you remember he [purchased a $450 million DaVinci painting](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/07/569142929/mystery-solved-saudi-prince-is-buyer-of-450m-davinci-painting) via proxy earlier this month or that he also [bought a $550 million yacht](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/world/rise-of-saudi-prince-shatters-decades-of-royal-tradition.html?_r=0) in 2016. *The New York Times* identified the buyer by tracing ownership of the companies used to purchase the chateau to Eight Investment Company, a firm with ties to the prince. According to *The New York Times*, advisers to members of the Saudi Arabian royal family say the prince ultimately owns the property. What makes a home worth $300 million? In the case of Chateau Louis XIV, it's a combination of historical style and new luxuries. The sprawling estate is situated on 57 acres of land that, according to the *The New York Times*, used to house a a 19th-century castle until it was bulldozed to make way for the new chateau. According to [*The Times*](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-new-build-mini-versailles-6z9qh65tzgf), a U.K.-based newspaper, the chateau's 50,000 square feet of living space comes with a mini-nightclub, a movie theater, two kitchens, a half-indoor, half-outdoor swimming pool and an aquarium with views of the moat. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/most-expensive-house/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Prices", "item": "https://money.com/home-prices/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Mystery Owner Of This $300M French Chateau Has Been Revealed" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/most-expensive-house/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/most-expensive-house/", "name": "The Mystery Owner Of This $300M French Chateau Has Been Revealed", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-12-18T19:57:39.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/most-expensive-house/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/most-expensive-house/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T07:28:09.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Mystery Owner Of This $300M French Chateau Has Been Revealed", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/12/171218-expensive-house.jpg", "width": 3500, "height": 2334, "caption": "171218-expensive-house" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Shaina Mishkin", "url": "https://money.com/author/shaina-mishkin/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/shaina-mishkin/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-12-18T19:57:39.000Z", "description": "Saudi Prince buys one of world's most expensive homes.", "abstract": "Saudi Prince buys one of world's most expensive homes.", "@id": "https://money.com/most-expensive-house/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T07:28:09.000Z", "wordCount": 287, "keywords": [ "real estate" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_the_United_States" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Real estate economics", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate_economics" ] } ] } ] } ```