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Tamara's Versailles: A 50-seat cinema, a gilded ballroom and 15 bathrooms... F1 heiress's £78m palace to keep up with her sister
Fleur de Lys estate also features marble walls and gold-embossed leather
Comes months after sister Petra bought house named most expensive in US
Eight-part reality TV series will chart Tamara's move to the United States
By Lara Gould
When it comes to sibling rivalry, no one is quite so extravagantly competitive as the Ecclestone sisters. Now their oneupmanship has spread to the most exclusive tier of the American property market. For just a few months after Petra bought a mansion once named as the most expensive home in the States, Tamara is set to move into the house ranked No 2 – just down the road.
The older daughter of Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is eyeing up the lavish Fleur de Lys estate to add to her property portfolio, undeterred by its £78 million asking price. The five-acre estate in the Holmby Hills in Bel Air, Los Angeles, was modelled on Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles – and certainly contains all the opulent luxuries a modern-day princess could demand.
As well as its 12 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, the mansion contains a 50-seat, satin-lined private cinema, a two-storey wood-panelled library stocked with first-edition books and garage parking for nine cars. Not to mention a gym, a ballroom based on Louis XIV’s Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and a formal dining room.
A moving story: Tamara' relocation to the Fleur de Lys mansion will be chronicled on an American reality TV show
Italian marble walls, French limestone floors and gold-embossed leather wall coverings all add to the decadent feel. And outside, the property boasts a spa pool with its own kitchen, an ornamental garden, a 1,200-metre running track, a championship tennis court and a folly – plus private quarters to house up to ten live-in domestic staff
The 45,000 sq ft house, tucked away behind gates and a 200-yard driveway, was commissioned in 1996 by Texan billionaire David Saperstein for his wife Suzanne. It was completed in 2002 – but less than two years later the couple’s 23-year marriage collapsed.
Mrs Saperstein was awarded the estate in the divorce, and put it on the market in 2006 for £78 million. In 2010, Forbes magazine named it as the second most expensive property in America – behind late TV guru Aaron Spelling’s 123-room mansion, The Manor, just down the road.
 
Sibling rivalry: Just a few months after Petra Ecclestone (right) bought the mansion once named the as the most expensive home in the States, Tamara is set to move into the house ranked No2 - just down the road
 
Time to reflect: The gilded ballroom features mirror-clad arches based on those in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, as well as impressive chandeliers and a ceiling fresco
And that was the home Petra bought from Spelling’s widow last year for a ‘bargain’ £53 million. It is the largest in Los Angeles County, and boasts a room solely designed for cutting flowers.
The amount Petra paid for The Manor suggests Tamara might be able to drive a hard bargain on Fleur de Lys – even though Mrs Saperstein has never dropped her price in the six years the estate has remained unsold.
Tamara, 28, already owns a £45 million home in Kensington Palace Gardens – London’s ‘billionaires’ row’ known as the most exclusive address in Britain.
That 55-room mansion is currently undergoing an £18 million renovation, due for completion next month. It includes a £1 million bathtub and special wardrobes for her £500,000 handbags collection.
 
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-22...l#ixzz2DmuirT1h
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