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Karen Winnick lops $55M off price of Casa Encantada in Bel-Air

Widow of financier Gary Winnick, who died this month, relists “work of art” at $195M

Karen Winnick Lops $55M Off Price of Bel-Air Mansion
Karen Winnick and the late Gary Winnick along with 10644 Bellagio Road in Bel-Air (Getty, The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills)

The widow of late billionaire financier Gary Winnick has slashed $55 million off the price of a 60-room Bel-Air mansion. The revised asking price is $195 million.

Artist and author Karen Winnick has relisted the historic Casa Encantada estate at 10644 Bellagio Road, according to the Robb Report.

Gary and Karen Winnick had put the 8.5-acre estate up for sale in June for $250 million, which if sold would have been the nation’s priciest home. Gary Winnick died on Nov. 4, at 76.

The 40,000-square-foot, H-shaped mansion was built in 1938 by Hilda Boldt Weber on the Bel Air Country Club golf course. The Georgian home with a Moderne flair, designed by James Dolena, was considered among the country’s most luxurious. 

The seven-bedroom, 20-bathroom mansion has set two records as the priciest home sold in the U.S.

The Winnicks bought Casa Entantada, or “enchanted house,” in 2000 for $94 million, a record at the time.

The seller was Dole Food magnate David Murdock, who in 1980 purchased it for $12.4 million, also a record. The estate was previously owned by Conrad Hilton, who in 1950 paid $225,000.

The Winnicks conducted a 1.5-year restoration led by designer Peter Marino that cost tens of millions of dollars. In 2019, they listed it for $225 million.

“To me, this is a work of art, and I have been its steward,” Gary Winnick told the Wall Street Journal last spring.

The sprawling estate, hidden from the street, is at the end of a curved driveway that ends with a motor court and fountain in front of a neoclassical portico.

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Of its original 60 rooms, a third were dedicated to servants’ quarters and the walk-in silver, fur and wine vaults in the basement, according to the late realtor and historian Jeff Hyland.

Interior finishes included rooms paneled in rare woods such as English sycamore and black walnut. 

The Winnicks restored the intricate plasterwork, and hired eight Parisian artisans to redo the walls of the dining room in a Japanese-inspired lacquer finish. It took 14 coats of paint and was polished by hand over many months, Gary Winnick had said.

The elaborately landscaped grounds include a swimming pool and silk trees, which draw parakeets into their branches. A tunnel connects two holes of the golf course.

Brokers Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency and Drew Fenton of Carolwood Estates hold the listing.

Winnick’s widow also has a Charles Gwathmey-designed apartment on the 20th floor of New York’s Sherry Netherland Hotel, now listed for nearly $4.5 million.

At $195 million, Casa Encantada may be the priciest listing in Los Angeles County.

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In 2020, Jeff Bezos bought the Warner estate in Beverly Hills from David Geffen for $165 million. In 2019, Lachlan Murdoch bought the Chartwell estate in Bel-Air from the estate of late Univision Chairman Jerry Perenchio for $150 million.

Earlier this year, Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought a 40,000-square-foot beachfront estate in Malibu for $200 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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Conrad HiltonDavid MurdockGary Winnick