The house from Scarface has sold for more than £8 million
As first reported in the Wall Street Journal, El Fureidis, a plush estate in Montecito, California has just sold for $12.3 million (£8.2 million), about a third of the original asking price.
El Fureidis was put on the market by owner Sergey Grishin, a Russian billionaire, for around $35 million (£23.3 million) in May 2014, but he was unable to sell the property, and was forced to cut the price almost in half to $17.9 million (£11.9 million) in May this year.
When the house still failed to sell, Grishin, who is president and chairman of RosEvro Group, a major consortium, was forced to drop the price by another $5 million (£3.3 million).
Listing for the house was done by estate agents Riskin Partners and Emily Kellenberger of Village Properties. Robert Riskin from Riskin Partners told the Wall Street Journal that the house was "overpriced" at first, and the $12.3 million £8.2 million) price tag "reflects its value."
The estate, which was designed by famous American architect Bertram Goodhue in the 1900s, only has four bedrooms, but has around 10,000 square feet of floor space. Other features include a Byzantine-influenced "conversation room", numerous swimming pools, and a gold leaf covered ceiling in the dining room.
Scarface - the movie most famous for the line "Say hello to my little friend!" - was partially filmed in the grounds of El Fureidis. The house served as the location for notorious gangster Tony Montana's wedding, and several other scenes in the movie.
The house was bought by a 59-year-old Texan businessman named Pradeep Yohanne Gupta. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Gupta said "I think we got it at a fair value,"adding that he hoped to spend Christmas in El Fureidis. Gupta is CEO of IQ Holdings, a private investment bank based in Houston. He intends to use the estate as his West Coast home.
According to the WSJ, Gupta insisted that he didn't buy the house because of its association with Scarface, but for its history and beautiful architecture. He said that being in the movie was just "a data point."