[imagesource: Realtor]

This pink Bel Air mansion was once home to a very notorious family.

Ibrahim bin Laden, the older half brother of late terrorist Osama bin Laden, left his Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles for ruin after the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to Real Estate AU.

He had been vacationing elsewhere at the time and never returned to the US, perhaps afraid of the challenges his last name would bring.

The property has been sitting desolate for almost 20 years, but is now going up for sale for a massive $28 million (around R400 million).

We say desolate, except for some time in 2010 when it was rented out to shoot adult films.

Image: Realtor

The property will need to be fixed up but despite its abandoned state, the price is based on location and “land value only”:

Situated in the prestigious lower Bel Air neighbourhood, the residence spans 660 [square metres] on more than almost 8 100 sqm of land, and is made up of seven bedrooms and five bathrooms.

Built in 1931, the estate, made with concrete and painted pink, is only a few doors down from the Hotel Bel-Air.

Image: Realtor

At least the pool and palms appear to be in good order, having been somehow maintained while nobody was there to enjoy them:

Image: Realtor

Property records show that Ibrahim had owned the Mediterranean villa-style home since 1983, for nearly four decades.

Apparently, he had bought it for $1,65 million at the time.

The property’s windows have been boarded up and no interior images are available:

Image: Realtor

Their living situation sounds lush, according to Steve Coll’s book, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century:

Ibrahim, who had lived there with his former wife, Christine Hartunian Sinay, a Los Angeles socialite with whom he shares daughter Sibba Hartunian, employed “full-time groundskeepers, household help, chauffeurs, and private security.”

The four-car garage once kept Ibrahim’s two Rolls-Royces and a Lamborghini:

Image: Realtor

Image: Realtor

Before being in the bin Laden family, the property was once the home of Arthur Freed in the 1960s, a Hollywood producer best known for Singin’ in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz.

Perhaps that explains the pink…

[source:realestate]