Estate of late financier Robert Day lists in Bel-Air for $150M

The widow of the late oil heir and businessman Robert Day has put their 18,800-square-foot Gilded Age-style estate in Bel-Air on the market for $150 million.

Marlyn Day has listed the 3.3-acre gated compound known as Villa dei Fiori, or Villa of Flowers, at 729 Bel Air Road, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Robert Day, founder of Trust Company of the West and grandson of Superior Oil founder William Myron Keck, bought the house in 1995 for $7.4 million, then renovated and expanded it. He died in September.

If sold for its asking price, the Palladian-style villa would be one of the most expensive homes to change hands in the U.S.

The nine-bedroom, 20-bathroom estate includes a 15,000-square-foot mansion, built in 1972, and two guesthouses.

The white two-story home, capped by an orange Italian-tile roof, has views of Downtown Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel Mountains, according to listing agents Linda May and Drew Fenton of Carolwood Estates. 

It also served as a regal gathering spot for dinners, fundraisers and such guests as former President George W. Bush and former presidential adviser Henry Kissinger, according to Marlyn Day. 

The mansion has a two-story entry rotunda lit by a skylight and chandelier. 

A formal living room has wood-carved doorways, an ornamental plaster ceiling and an antique gold-leaf mantelpiece. A library has an 18th-century chandelier dangling from a similarly intricate ceiling. 

A formal dining room that opens to the outdoors has a coffered ceiling with a porcelain chandelier and walls lined with 18th-century French wallpaper. 

The home has a large covered terrace with an outdoor dining area, plus a home office, a wine cellar, screening room with a fireplace and a lounge with a built-in bar.

Outside, the home is surrounded by manicured gardens, including a rose garden, small lake and waterfall. The grounds contain a croquet lawn, an orchid hot house, an indoor plant nursery and an Argentine padel court, where Robert Day would host mixed doubles.

After buying the property, Day added the padel court, viewing platform and guesthouses.

“Robert and I had a significant lifestyle in this remarkable home together. We entertained constantly and we were the hub for many things going on in our city,” Marlyn Day said in a statement. “With his absence, I feel compelled to embark on a new chapter, desiring to shift my lifestyle and pass on this magnificent estate for its next illustrious owner’s chapter.”

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The Day property is located near the Hotel Bel-Air and across the street from the Chartwell estate, which in 2019 sold to Lachlan Murdoch for $150 million.

Nine-figure deals have surged during the last few years in L.A., New York and Palm Beach, according to the WSJ. As of early this year, at least 24 homes have sold for $100 million or more since 2020, more than the total number of nine-figure sales during the previous decade.

— Dana Bartholomew