Maven Manors: Bask in Estée Lauder's Long-Time Riviera Villa For $13M

Wednesday, January 22, 2014, by Amy Schellenbaum

In 1961 budding cosmetics tycoon Estée Lauder fell in love with Villa Roche Cline, a six-bedroom Mediterranean manor set above Cannes in the South of France. Though the villa was built in the earlier 20th century, Lauder brought in a "kind of bourgeois Sixties look," as the current owner, a perennial house renovator, once described to The Telegraph. The walls of the bedroom, once emblazoned with the blue-green logo of Lauder's company, have been replastered, though the hand-carved oak woodwork and gray marble floors remain. Decades of wear (the place had been abandoned in the 10 years before Lauder's death in 2004) meant Kempen decided to trim the overgrown, view-blocking trees, fix the leaky roof, and add a pool. Now the property, which "oozes the essences of the French Riviera," or so the brokerbabble insists, is on the market asking €9.85M or about $13.36M. Besides being able to say you own the place where the fragrance "Beautiful" was developed, the new owner will have these bragging rights: three "elegant reception rooms," a master suite and dressing room, a home office, and a panoramic sea view.

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