04-02-2010, 12:07 PM
The world's most expensive home is up for sale - for £67.5 million ($135 million).
The Hala Ranch mansion, set on a 95-acre estate in Aspen, Colorado, is bigger than the White House.
It boasts 15 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a children's wing, beauty salon, swimming pool, tennis courts, and its own cross-country ski trails.
The mansion is owned by Saudi prince Bandar bin Sultan,[often called Bandar Bush] the man at the heart of the £1bn corruption inquiry into BAE Systems, who until last year was Saudi ambassador to the US.
Joshua Saslove, the estate agent handling the sale, told The New York Times that after review by the prince's lawyers, only 11 viewings of the 1,000 requests to see Hala Ranch have been granted.
At least two have been to journalists who have written glowing accounts of the mountain retreat.
Prince Bandar and his wife, Princess Haifa, built the ranch in 1991, as Aspen was transformed from a place of hippie chic into the destination of choice for billionaires and their hangers on.
According a New York Times reporter, most rooms have banks of windows overlooking the Rocky Mountains
The Hala Ranch mansion, set on a 95-acre estate in Aspen, Colorado, is bigger than the White House.
It boasts 15 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a children's wing, beauty salon, swimming pool, tennis courts, and its own cross-country ski trails.
The mansion is owned by Saudi prince Bandar bin Sultan,[often called Bandar Bush] the man at the heart of the £1bn corruption inquiry into BAE Systems, who until last year was Saudi ambassador to the US.
Joshua Saslove, the estate agent handling the sale, told The New York Times that after review by the prince's lawyers, only 11 viewings of the 1,000 requests to see Hala Ranch have been granted.
At least two have been to journalists who have written glowing accounts of the mountain retreat.
Prince Bandar and his wife, Princess Haifa, built the ranch in 1991, as Aspen was transformed from a place of hippie chic into the destination of choice for billionaires and their hangers on.
According a New York Times reporter, most rooms have banks of windows overlooking the Rocky Mountains
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass