Silvio Berlusconi’s heirs have agreed to sell Villa Certosa, the former Italian prime minister’s sprawling Sardinian retreat, in a deal reportedly worth around €350 million.
The estate, one of Italy’s most famous private properties, is being sold to Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd, a company linked to Qatar’s ruling family and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to Italian media reports cited by Reuters.
Fininvest, the Berlusconi family holding company, confirmed that one of its companies had accepted a binding offer from a foreign buyer for the property, but did not disclose the name of the purchaser or the value of the deal.
Villa Certosa, located on Sardinia’s exclusive Costa Smeralda, was once valued at about €500 million. The final agreement is expected to mark the end of the Berlusconi family’s ownership of a property closely tied to the late media magnate’s political, business and personal life.
The estate covers around 120 hectares and includes 126 rooms, swimming pools, an amphitheatre, extensive gardens and a private underground grotto where small boats can dock away from public view. It also features a mock volcano, one of several theatrical additions that helped turn the villa into a symbol of Berlusconi’s wealth and taste for spectacle.
Berlusconi bought the property in the 1980s and used it for decades as both a private retreat and an informal stage for diplomacy. Guests over the years included world leaders such as Vladimir Putin, George W Bush and Tony Blair.
But Villa Certosa also became associated with the scandals that followed Berlusconi during the later years of his political career, including the so-called “bunga bunga” parties that drew intense scrutiny in Italy and abroad.
Berlusconi died in 2023, leaving behind a vast business and property empire. The sale of Villa Certosa is part of a wider effort by his five children to rationalise parts of the family’s real estate portfolio.
Source: AMNA
