The famed Los Angeles Playboy mansion belonging to Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, has been sold for US$100 million, and Hefner, 90, has the right to live in the mansion for the rest of his life, a representative for the buyer said in a news release on Tuesday.
The property was bought by Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Co, for half of the US$200 million it was initially listed for earlier this year. Metropoulos said Hefner’s 1927 Gothic Tudor-style mansion, which has an area of 20,000 square feet, had a “rich and storied legacy” and is a “masterpiece in design.”
Hefner and Playboy Enterprises did not comment on the sale.
The property, which was purchased by Playboy in 1971 for a reported US$1.1 million, sits amid 52 hectares in Holmby Hills, west of Los Angeles, and includes 29 rooms, a tennis court and a free-form swimming pool. It also has a zoo license. It is home to the famous Playboy grotto, which over the years served as the setting for some of Hefner’s most lavish, hedonistic parties. (Reuters)