Berlusconi heirs sell Sardinian party palace to Qatari sheikh

By Elvira Pollina

MILAN, June 24 (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's heirs have agreed to sell the former Italian prime minister's luxury Sardinian retreat, Villa Certosa, to a company linked to Qatar's ruling family, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani's Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd paid some €350 million ($395 million) for the sprawling estate on Sardinia's exclusive Costa Smeralda, local media reported.

Fininvest, the Berlusconi family holding, confirmed that one of its companies had "accepted a binding offer from a foreign entity for the sale of Villa Certosa", without giving further details.

Neither al Thani nor the Luxembourg-registered Constellation Hotels Holding Ltd could be immediately reached for comment.

Berlusconi, who died in 2023, blurred politics, media, business and private excess. He hosted his famous "bunga bunga" parties at Villa Certosa, with an array of young women flown in for the events.

FAMOUS GUESTS, FAKE VOLCANO 

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.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also vacationed there with his wife, Cherie.

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.

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. 

($1 = 0.8830 euros)

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina, Writing by Crispian Balmer, editing by Alvise Armellini and Keith Weir)