A 40,000-square-foot Los Angeles estate known as Casa Encantada has twice become the most expensive home sold in the US; first in 1980, and again 20 years later. Now, it’s set to make a third run for the title with a $250 million dollar asking price, The Wall Street Journal reports. It would surpass the state record set by Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Tadao Ando–designed mansion—which claimed the spot for most expensive home in California history just last month—as well as the national record, currently held by hedge fund founder Ken Griffin. The billionaire’s Central Park South high-rise became the country’s most expensive home for its $238 million price tag in 2019.
Casa Encantada is a Depression-era construction, built on approximately 8.5 acres of prized Bel-Air property in the 1930s. It was first conceived as a the dwelling of widow Hilda Boldt Weber, who was married to successful glass manufacturer Charles Boldt. According to Jeffrey Hyland’s 2008 book, The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills, Weber was regarded as an outsider by the old money elite social groups of the area due to her nouveau riche status. She had inherited a sum equivalent to $150 million in 1929 following her husband’s death, a quarter of which she devoted to building the statement-making palatial residence so as to declare herself a rightful member of the LA high society from which she felt excluded.
Weber sold the house in 1950 to hotelier Conrad Hilton, who resided there until his death nearly 30 years later. It was snapped up from the Hilton estate by another mogul, David Murdock, the billionaire businessman and Dole Food Company chairman, for $12.4 million in 1980. Casa Encantada’s current owners, financier Gary Winnick and his wife, children’s author and artist Karen Winnick, purchased the abode for $94 million in 2000.
“I came to appreciate the craftsmanship and workmanship in the house,” Winnick told the WSJ. “This isn’t the kind of house where you can just call up a regular decorator and say, ‘Come decorate my house.’ It is a totally different mindset.”
Spearheaded by interior designer Peter Marino, the restoration of Winnick’s tenancy spanned approximately two and a half years, and it was no small undertaking: About 250 workers were on site each day.
After Murdock acquired the property from the Hilton estate, he sold off all the home’s original furniture. The pieces were the work of famed furniture designer T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, and the Winnicks felt it was worthwhile to track down a number of the items to return them to their rightful place at Casa Encantada. Marino was able to bring around 12 of the pieces back home to Bel-Air. The financier and philanthropist has also decked the abode out with an impressive collection of art, including pieces by Edward Hopper and Cy Twombly. A portrait of George Washington in the home’s study was originally commissioned by Benjamin Franklin himself.
The aesthetic updates as well as the installation of new heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical systems costs tens of millions of dollars, the Winnicks told WSJ. Presumably, the cost of the renovations would be more than recouped should the Winnicks secure an offer around their asking price for the mansion.
Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estates Agency holds the listing with Drew Fenton of Carolwood Estates.
