For Sale: Beverly Hills Mansion Site, Sans Sheik or Nudes
The gently sloping piece of property at 9561 Sunset Blvd. is an empty strip of land, ringed by a wrought iron fence. The house, tennis court and pool are gone. The front lawn has turned brown, and dead leaves cover the driveway stretching beyond the padlocked gates. The property is for sale.
But once, a young Saudi Arabian sheik and his wife made the 38-room mansion that had stood there the most notorious place in Beverly Hills.
Back in 1978, they painted the outside green, made the chimney blue and covered the roof with shiny copper. But that’s not what made it famous--or infamous.
That came from the couple’s “restoration” of four classically posed nudes, which for years had graced the front veranda in total obscurity. These white plaster works were redone so that their private parts were brightly highlighted against the newly flesh-colored bodies.
The corner of Sunset Blvd. and Alpine Drive became a traffic nightmare. Tour buses made it a stop. Tourists and locals alike milled about, gawked and took pictures. The neighbors were incensed.
The “renovation” performed by Sheik Mohammed al Fassi, then 28, and his wife made them the talk of the town. They seemed surprised, but did what any self-respecting instant celebrities would: They hired security guards and gave interviews.
“We just wanted to make them more beautiful,” the then 24-year-old Sheikha Dena said of her nudes.
But fame was fleeting. The house burned in an arson fire in 1980. The Sheik and Sheikha got divorced, and subsequent news stories about them focused on their financial squabbles. Sheika Dena got the fire-charred mansion and sold it for $5 million.
The Sheik, according to reports, has returned to Saudi Arabia, and the Sheika is said to be traveling in Europe.
The house was torn down in 1985 as the new buyers announced plans to redevelop the 3.58-acre property, encountered intense local opposition to their efforts to subdivide it, and put it up for sale. This year, current owner Fordland Corp. of Florida got permission to divide it into two parcels and put it up for sale again. The asking price is $9.9 million.
If the property doesn’t sell, the owner has commissioned architectural drawings for a 23,500-square-foot house for the smaller of the two parcels, a company representative said.
Plans call for tennis and racquetball courts, a ballroom, bowling alley, pool, separate guest house, six-car garage--but no nude statues.
