• Home and design
• news

A more than 30-year-old body was discovered inside the prestigious estate

A luxury mansion in the heart of Paris has been sold at auction for 35 million euros, after standing empty for three decades. But when the restoration work began, the workers discovered a body in a state of decay with signs of violence on it

• estate
• Auction
• body
• Paris

Not to be missed

Works for the restoration of a 35 million-euro estate in one of the most prestigious areas of Paris have been halted after a body in a state of decay was discovered in one of the basements of the building, local media reported. Minutes from the Les Inwalds area and the French Prime Minister's official residence, and behind Yves Saint Laurent's original house, the special complex on Audion Street has stood empty for 30 years.

Behind white walls were left empty corridors and four buildings with broken walls where the poet Francois Coffee had once lived. The estate's elegant garden has been neglected since the 1980s, and has grown wild. The place is considered a coveted destination for real estate agents, and was eventually sold by its owner, a Dutch real estate company, at an auction in January that lasted barely 15 minutes. The buyer, Jean-Bernard LePonte, paid 35.1 million euros, almost six times the starting price.

More on this topic:

• Inspired by "50 Shades of Gray": An adult-only mansion is for sale
• Buyers have been warned that what is happening inside this house "is not for the faint of heart"
• Prince was here: the hallucinatory, star-studded mansion is up for sale in Hollywood
• Stop smoking with the largest rehab institute in Israel

Le Ponte, a former board member of a large company in France and now an industrial company owner, wasted no time in starting the property's renovation and restoration work in February, paying close attention to detail to restore the estate's original splendor, La Parisienne reported. But when the workers began to survey the place - they encountered her body in a state of advanced decay. "The feeling was hard because the body had been there for so long without people knowing," Sabine told Burton, vice president of the local conservation association.

The Le Monde newspaper reported that the body was discovered after workers removed several blankets that were on the floor in one of the basements. Broken bones and knife cuts were found on the body - findings that led to the opening of a murder investigation. Newspapers reported that the body belonged to a man named Jean-Pierre Renault, who died 30 years ago. "He is someone without a glorious past, and with drinking problems," a police source told the newspaper. "We can imagine a quarrel with someone who lives there, but it is not clear if he was murdered there or his body was just hidden there and we probably could not reach those responsible. No longer among the living. "

The murdered man's children were notified of the discovery of their father's body, and the owner of the estate declined to comment, announcing that restoration work would be resumed after the summer.