The magnificent $50million mansion owned by former Take That star Robbie Williams is off the market after being purchased by Canadian rapper Drake.
The property, a sprawling 10-bedroom estate spread across three acres of land in Beverly Hills, has been sold to the hip hop star in an off-market deal, although financial details surrounding the purchase will not be disclosed until the deal is formally completed.
It’s understood that Williams, who shared the home with actress wife Ayda Field and their four children, had initially hoped for an $80million sale before settling for the significantly lower figure after failing to find a buyer.
However the singer has still made a notable profit, having originally purchased it from Guess co-founder Armand Marciano for $32.67million in 2015, according to property records.
The Tuscan style property includes a main house measuring some 25,000 square feet containing ten bedrooms and no less than twenty-two bathrooms.
Other amenities include an eleven car garage, a wine cellar, a gym, a game room, a professional screening room, an elevator, a tennis court, a mosaic tiled pool and an outdoor kitchen.
The Beverly Hills purchase is Drake’s first real estate buy in the Los Angeles market after previously buying up property in his native Canada, including a 50,000 square foot estate in his home town of Toronto.
The sale comes after Williams found a buyer for the 70-acre Wiltshire home he bought in 2009 for £8.1million.
Compton Bassett House went on the market with estate agency Knight Frank for £6.75 million in 2021, with the singer admitting he was keen to sell to someone who appreciated its splendour as much as he did.
He said in a statement: ‘Compton Bassett House is most definitely a family friendly house that deserves to have much more laughter and joy within its beautiful walls. We hope the incoming purchaser will enjoy just as much as we have.’
He added: ‘The gardens and trees have enchanted us with their magic, and on rainy days—of which there are many in England—we have played and splashed around the indoor pool, much to our delight.’
Speaking in 2014, Robbie – then a father of two – admitted he was keen to make the United Kingdom his permanent base after spending an extended period of time in the United States.
He told The Sun: ‘I love LA. The people and the weather are great but it’s not England. It can’t offer the same. Things change when you’re a dad – there are people to look after who are more important than yourself.
‘I want [daughter] Teddy and the new baby, whatever it may be, to be educated in England. Teddy is already surrounded by English people so she’s bound to have an accent anyway.
‘But that’s not the point – we want to educate her in London. We’ve just bought a ruddy big house so we had better be coming back!’
Williams reportedly put his £9 million Compton Basset Manor back on the market after failing to sell it back in July 2010, with the singer having forked out a cool £24million on an incredible mansion in Switzerland after moving their family to Geneva.
Williams is said to be keen on selling the 17th century Wiltshire property as he ‘never felt at home’ there and also feels it is ‘haunted’.
A source told The Mirror: ‘It seemed like an idyllic hideaway in the English countryside but he never really felt at home there. In a matter of months he realised it wasn’t where he and Ayda wanted to settle.
‘Now he’s planning a reshuffle of his property portfolio since deciding to buy in Switzerland.The family moved there last summer and rented for six months to make sure they wanted to stay.’
The singer also owns a £17.5 million London home that has been the source of an ongoing row with his next door neighbour, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, over renovation plans.
The former Take That star was given planning permission for an underground swimming pool and gym in October 2019 at his Grade II-listed home after five years of fighting with rocker Page.
Williams previously responded by withdrawing the blueprints but later returned with a fresh set of plans, and last month he filed a new report guaranteeing that noise from the units will not exceed 25 decibels.
Page hotly contested the application, saying even the tiniest of vibrations could ruin his own Grade I-listed building in west London, and its fragile ancient paintings and frescoes.
Although Williams won the war, Page was victorious in one battle, which meant the singer’s builders could only use hand-held tools to excavate the basement, meaning it would take years at great expense.
It was thought Williams had lost interest and was reportedly looking for buyers after relocating to Switzerland during the pandemic.
It was thought Robbie had lost interest and was reportedly looking for buyers after relocating to Switzerland during the pandemic.
Meanwhile three of Banksy’s most recognisable artworks from Robbie Williams’s collection are set to go under the hammer for millions.
The pieces – Girl With Balloon, Kissing Coppers and Vandalised Oils (Choppers) – went up for sale in the first edition of Sotheby’s The Now Evening Auction in London on March 2.
The artworks by anonymous street artist Banksy, who hails from Bristol, are estimated to be worth millions of pounds each.
It is the first time Williams has sold anything from his personal art collection and the auction comes after he sold his seven bedroom Wiltshire home.
He sold the home, said to be haunted, for £6.75m – £1.35m less than he paid in 2009.
Speaking of the artworks, Williams said: ‘I remember seeing Girl With Balloon, Vandalised Oils (Choppers) and Kissing Coppers for the first time.
‘I believe they are some of his best paintings and I love how closely linked they are to the street pieces.
‘As a collector of Banksy’s work, you become part of a broader cultural movement.’
The classic pop art image of Girl With Balloon first made its debut under Waterloo Bridge in 2002 and it once again made headlines in 2018 after it partially self-destructed at the conclusion of a Sotheby’s auction in which it had been sold for £1.1 million.
The new partially shredded artwork became Love Is In The Bin and went under the hammer for £18,582,000 in October 2021, which the auction house cited as a record fee for the street artist.
Williams’s Girl With Balloon (2006) is depicted on metal and is the first of its kind to appear at auction, Sotheby’s have said, starting with a price estimate of £2 million to £3 million.
Kissing Coppers, which depicts two British policemen in a passionate embrace, was first unveiled on the exterior of The Prince Albert Pub in Brighton in 2004.
But the original mural was removed in 2014 after being repeatedly vandalised.
Williams’s version of the artwork from 2005, which is estimated at £2.5 million to £3.5 million, is the first time a Kissing Coppers painting on canvas has been offered on the secondary market, Sotheby’s said.
The third Banksy piece in the collection is Vandalised Oils (Choppers) from 2005, and features two armed military helicopters disrupting a serene pastoral landscape.
The artwork, which hails from the artist’s Vandalised Oils series which sees graffiti on top of classical oil paintings, has an estimated price tag of £2.5 million to £3.5 million.
Hugo Cobb, head of The Now Evening Auction at Sotheby’s London, said: ‘These works unite the cultural legacies of two of Britain’s biggest stars: Robbie Williams and Banksy.
‘Like their creator, and like their owner, they are acerbic, iconic, irreverent, and unique.’
