Billionaire Robert Friedland Buys Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Bel Air Mansion for $16M

Published: December 24, 2020 | By: American Luxury Staff

The flashy Bel-Air Hollywood Regency that was once home to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elvis too—although not at the same time—has sold yet again; the recent closing on the property is the third since 2017. This time around it was mining industry financier Robert Friedland to step to the plate and shell out $16 million for the heavily stylized and industrially glamorous house.

The figure establishes a defined roller-coaster pattern of recent sale prices for the iconic property. In 2017, the colorful pad sold for $10.5 million; the following year it was back on the market, ultimately changing hands for $20.8 million.

The home spans nearly 6,400 sq. ft. and contains four bedrooms and five baths. It sports the mansard roof common to the style, which blends French regency and 1950s-1960s SoCal luxury home architectural sensibilities into an easily-identifiable vernacular amalgam. Its yellow façade is embellished with casement and ornamental windows, awnings, and an entry embellished with checkerboard tile and a ram’s head pediment.

The exterior detail prefigures the flashy period style that dominates within—recent sales appear to have left the potently expressed glamour of the Gabor years entirely intact. A beaux-arts foyer with an ornate inlaid oak floor opens up the home’s options beautifully, and from there begins an odyssey of color, pattern and texture which is occasionally jarring but always interesting: a chilly kitchen, a conservatory with custom millwork, a dayroom with floral wall covering, and a living area with a retractable glass wall that opens to a checkerboard patio are a few of the rooms.

The house’s entertainment potential is fleshed out on the upper floor, where it veers into the quasi-palatial with a roof terrace and a guest/party space with a wet bar.

Friedland is the founder of Ivanhoe Capital and Ivanhoe Mines. Earlier this year, he picked up a superbly realized Hollywood Hills home for $26 million. His net worth is north of $1 billion.

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