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The heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi have reportedly agreed to sell his Sardinian retreat, Villa Certosa, to a company linked to Qatar’s ruling family, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The villa is famed for its celebrity guests, fake volcano and Berlusconi’s ‘bunga bunga’ parties.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also holidayed there with his wife, Cherie, as did Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani’s Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd paid roughly €350 million ($395 million) for the sprawling estate on Sardinia’s exclusive Costa Smeralda, local media reported. Fininvest, the Berlusconi family holding, confirmed one of its companies had “accepted a binding offer from a foreign entity for the sale of Villa Certosa,” without giving further details.
Berlusconi, who died in 2023, blurred politics, media, business, and private excess, hosting his “bunga bunga” parties at Villa Certosa.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) and his wife Cherie (C) meet with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi (L) in Porto Cervo, Sardinia Island, Italy, Monday 16 August 2004 (EPA)
The property is spread across roughly 120 hectares (300 acres) with views across the Mediterranean. It includes the main villa and outbuildings with around 126 rooms, swimming pools, an amphitheatre, a vast cactus collection, and a mock volcano that erupts on command. It also has a James Bond-style underground grotto where small boats can dock discreetly out of sight.
Berlusconi used the villa to entertain presidents, prime ministers, billionaires and celebrities. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited, and his two teenage daughters were reported to have spent the summer there in 2002.
In 2009, Spanish daily El País published photographs taken at the estate, including a nude image of former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek near one of the pools.
Russia’s president Vladmir Putin, left, looks on as Italy’s Premier-elect Silvio Berlusconi gestures, during a joint news conference after talks in Berlusconi’s luxury ‘Villa Certosa’ in Porto Rotondo, on the island region of Sardinia, Italy, Friday, April 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The sale follows a broader effort by Berlusconi’s five children to rationalise parts of the vast property portfolio that he left after his death. Villa Certosa was repeatedly reported to be close to being sold over the years, with possible buyers at different times said to include Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Saudi investors.
Neither al Thani nor Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd could be immediately reached for comment.
