Charles Saatchi has missed out on a huge windfall from the sale of the Belgravia home he once shared with Nigella Lawson.
The 70-year-old art dealer sold the vast lateral apartment on Eaton Square for £25 million to Christian Candy’s CPC Group last year.
The three-storey property was then divided into two homes by the developer and both were put up for sale. Now the lower flat is under offer for close to its £25 million asking price.
The upstairs property on the first floor fetched £15 million when it was sold separately early this year.
It was then rapidly sold on to a Belgian buyer for just over £20 million meaning the two properties are now worth approaching £50 million.
Local property sources say the former marital home of the advertising tycoon and his TV cook ex-wife was “completely unmodernised” when it was sold by Mr Saatchi following a row with neighbours.
The conversion into two flats and the refurbishment of the lower flat would have cost several million pounds. A brochure describes the five-bedroom property as “a spectacular south-facing double fronted apartment”.
The brochure from agents Savills shows the 5,000 sq ft flat has had a makeover by Candy & Candy, the developer brothers’ interior design company. It says the 47ft-long main reception room “boasts such epic proportions that it was previously used as a gallery by a renowned art collector for his private collection”.
New features include a floor-to-ceiling mirror wall and marble floors in the 27ft-long entrance hallway; a vast chandelier made of glass balls in the dining area; a media room with a 70-inch plasma TV and a master bedroom en suite shower with TV screen built in.
Mr Saatchi moved into the apartment with Lawson and her family after paying £3.8 million for it in 2001. But after falling out with neighbours who were doing works to their property he put the apartment on the market for £36 million in 2010 when the London was still recovering from the financial crash. He reduced the price to £25 million before it was picked up by CPC.
One local source said: “Charles Saatchi must be kicking himself. He decided to sell after an intemperate outburst with the neighbours.
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“The whole place looked tired. But all it needed was a few hundred spent on cosmetic improvements. He insisted on £36 million so it did not sell for two years.”
Mr Saatchi and Lawson, 53, divorced in July after he was photographed holding her throat outside Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair.
Last week she gave evidence at the trial of two former aides accused of spending £685,000 on loaned credit cards. The trial continues today.
