French billionaire Xavier Neel has bought the Lambert Hotel, owned by Qatari Prince Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, for more than 200 million euros ($226 million), according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg.
The deal is one of the largest ever for a private property in Paris, surpassing the €100m Hotel de Soyecourt deal in 2011.
Bloomberg sources said Neil, founder of communications group Iliad SA, is not planning to live in the 43,000-square-foot property and is considering using the property for a cultural institution.
The Lamparte Palace was built in 1640 by Louis Le Vaux, the architect of the royal era, who contributed to the design of the Palace of Versailles.
also reduced French President Emmanuel Macron taxes on the wealthy, and removed one of the biggest obstacles for high-income earners to consider working in France, a move that attracted the interest of the wealthy.
Neil has a fortune of regarding $8.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and he already owns dozens of luxury properties in Paris. He is also a strong investor in startups, having set up the business incubator Station F.
The Lamparte Hotel hosted literary salons attended by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as its ownership by Polish Princess Anna Czartoriska and banker Guy de Rothschild. It was sold in 2007 for more than 60 million euros to Prince Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani.
In 2013, the palace was hit by a fire, which forced the owner to undertake a round of important renovations, at a total cost of 130 million euros.
