Inside the €87-Million Mystery: The Sale of La Favorita and the Billionaire Behind It

 

The Côte d’Azur has always carried an air of intrigue—at times even scandal—and that mystique remains an essential part of its enduring allure.

One of the French Riviera’s most coveted estates, La Favorita in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, has quietly changed hands for an eye-watering €87 million. In a region where discretion is a currency and silence a skill, the sale of this sprawling “neo-Florentine” palace has stirred up questions about luxury real estate, international tax disputes, and the shadow of geopolitical sanctions.

At the center of the story is a billionaire who wants out, a billionaire who may have moved in, and a villa whose history is almost as labyrinthine as the offshore structure that once owned it.

A Seller Seeking an Exit

The seller, Italian industrialist Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, acquired La Favorita in the early 1990s. For 35 years, it served as his Riviera refuge—until it didn’t. When recently reached by phone, the 82-year-old tycoon offered a curt dismissal: “I have nothing to do with this property.”

That brief statement confirmed what many in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat’s tight-knit circle already knew: the villa had been sold. But behind the sale lies a tangled financial backdrop.

Caltagirone’s ownership was routed through a Delaware company, controlled by a Maltese entity, itself held by a Jersey-based trust—a common structure in high-end European real estate. Yet one thing was not common: a €14.5-million tax dispute with France. In November 2024, the Court of Cassation upheld a two-decades-old judgment in favor of the French tax authorities. The claim centered on unpaid annual taxes owed on properties held through offshore structures.

For years, Caltagirone had also been embroiled in legal trouble over illegal expansions to the villa—more than 1,000 square meters added without proper authorization.

By the time the recent judgment fell, selling La Favorita became more than a business decision. It became a financial necessity. Sources in the local real estate world say the billionaire was firm: he would sell only if he walked away with at least €20 million net after taxes, disputes, and fees. To guarantee serious inquiries, he barred real estate agents from organizing visits unless the buyer could prove credibility at the highest level.

He found one.

The Shadow Buyer: A Russian Billionaire in Monaco?

Whispers quickly filled the peninsula: the new owner was not French, nor Italian, nor discreetly European. All fingers pointed to one name: Leonid Fedun.

A former Red Army officer turned billionaire businessman, Fedun made his fortune as a major shareholder of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company. He previously purchased Villa Joya on the same peninsula in 2011 for €72.6 million, demonstrating a taste for Riviera grandeur.

Fedun, who now lives primarily in Monaco, has not confirmed the acquisition. Caltagirone denies knowing the buyer. But agents insist that Fedun’s profile, wealth, and personal preferences fit perfectly.

One detail stands out: Fedun is passionate about tennis. La Favorita includes its own private tennis court, a rarity even in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Locals whisper that the billionaire intends to settle his new, younger family—his wife, a former model thirty years his junior, and their five children—in the villa after extensive renovations. And renovations will be extensive: agents who have seen the property say at least €25 million is needed to restore the interior, plus several million more for the grounds.

A Palace in Need of Resurrection

Designed by architect Luc Svetchine, La Favorita was once a statement property: towering, ornate, and echoing the grandeur of Florentine villas. But decades of use, legal battles, and delayed work have dulled its splendor.

What still sets it apart is the land—21,000 square meters of manicured paradise stretching to the foot of Cap Ferrat’s semaphore. In a peninsula where many villas sit on tight parcels perched over the sea, La Favorita’s park-like estate is extraordinarily rare and contributes significantly to its €87-million valuation.

The Sanctions Cloud

The sale occurs at a delicate geopolitical moment. Last month, both the U.S. Treasury and the European Union imposed sanctions on Lukoil. While Fedun is not personally sanctioned, he remains one of the company’s largest private shareholders.

This raises questions: Could future sanctions affect the villa? Could the transaction draw scrutiny? Could Moscow itself intervene?

A recent report from Nice-Matin suggests that Russia is increasingly monitoring—and sometimes contesting—its elites’ overseas assets, adding another layer of intrigue.

For now, the transaction appears legal and unchallenged. But in an era where oligarch-owned villas on the Riviera have been frozen, seized, or politically targeted, the story of La Favorita may not be over.

A Riviera Transaction With Global Ripples

Beyond the tax drama, offshore structures, and political shadows, the sale of La Favorita highlights a broader truth: Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat remains one of the most exclusive and opaque real estate markets in Europe. Ultra-wealthy buyers operate through layers of trusts and shell companies, while deals worth tens of millions occur almost entirely out of public view.

This sale, however, pierced the bubble.

A billionaire trying to escape a decade-long tax battle. A Russian magnate possibly moving into one of the Riviera’s last great estates. A transaction happening just as sanctions tighten around the Russian oil industry.

La Favorita may now have a new owner.
But the story surrounding it is far from finished.

Famous Lesbian and Bisexual Women of the French Riviera

 

For more than a century, the French Riviera has been a landscape not only of sun-drenched beaches and artistic glamour, but also a haven for women who defied convention. Among them are some of the most influential lesbian and bisexual writers, performers, and cultural figures in French history. Drawn to the Côte d’Azur’s beauty and its spirit of freedom, they left behind a legacy that still shapes the region’s artistic soul.

Here are the women whose stories illuminate the queer heritage of the French Riviera.

Colette: A New Life in Saint-Tropez

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, known simply as Colette, was one of France’s most celebrated writers — bold, sensual, and uncompromisingly herself. Openly bisexual, she lived several influential relationships with women throughout her life, many of which inspired her novels.

Colette found a sanctuary in Saint-Tropez, where she owned a house and spent long periods writing, gardening, and building a life away from the constraints of Paris. The Riviera offered her what she described as a rebirth — a place where her creativity flourished and where she could live with unusual openness for the time. In the sunshine and quiet rhythms of the Var coastline, Colette embraced both her artistic independence and her relationships with women, weaving these experiences into her literary world.

Suzy Solidor: The Riviera’s Bold and Beautiful Icon

A striking cabaret singer, actress, and muse to many of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Suzy Solidor was one of France’s first openly lesbian celebrities. Known for her androgynous beauty and magnetic stage presence, she cultivated an image that challenged gender norms long before it was socially acceptable.

In her later years, Solidor settled on the French Riviera, spending the remainder of her life in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where she died in 1983. Her legacy lives on in the Château-Musée Grimaldi, which houses her extraordinary collection of portraits — more than 40 works in which some of the century’s greatest painters captured her enigmatic face. Suzy’s unapologetic queerness, artistic daring, and larger-than-life personality made her one of the Riviera’s most unforgettable figures.

Lucie Delarue-Mardrus: Poet of Desire

A prolific poet, novelist, sculptor, and journalist, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus wrote openly about her love for women at a time when such admissions were rare. Her passionate relationships — including with the famous salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney — fueled much of her writing.

While not permanently based on the Riviera, Delarue-Mardrus’s influence on French queer literary culture is deeply connected to the broader artistic landscape to which the Côte d’Azur belonged. Her work, filled with emotional honesty and tenderness toward women, helped shape early 20th-century lesbian literature and earned her the first Renée Vivien Prize for poetry.

Violette Leduc: A Radical Voice Honored in Nice

Few writers were as daring as Violette Leduc, whose work explored lesbian desire, sexuality, and the female body with an honesty that scandalised mid-century France. Her novel Thérèse et Isabelle, which tells the story of two young women in love, is considered a milestone of lesbian literature.

Although Leduc did not live full-time on the Riviera, her work is recognised by cultural institutions in Nice, where themes of her writing resonate in exhibitions and queer cultural programming. Today she stands as a symbol of literary rebellion — a woman who tore down the walls of censorship and paved the way for modern queer authors.

Françoise Mallet-Joris: A Literary Trailblazer

Belgian-born but influential throughout French literary life, Françoise Mallet-Joris wrote novels that explored complex relationships, including those between women. Her early work Le Rempart des Béguines became famous — and controversial — for its portrayal of lesbian love.

Mallet-Joris moved within the same intellectual circles that gave the French Riviera its cultural prestige, and her frankness about her relationships with women made her a significant figure in the evolving conversation about sexuality and literature.

Why the Riviera Became a Sanctuary

The Côte d’Azur has long been more than a glamorous destination. Its light, its landscapes, and its international artistic community nurtured women who lived outside traditional boundaries. Here, queer women found freedom from Parisian social constraints. They discovered creative inspiration in the region’s beauty and cultural energy. They built a community of fellow artists and writers who shared their experiences and perspectives. They also found a deep sense of belonging in a region that has historically welcomed outsiders.

Even today, the Riviera maintains this spirit of inclusivity. Cities like Nice openly support LGBTQ+ culture, hosting festivals, exhibitions, and community events that preserve the memory of these trailblazing women.

A Lasting Heritage

The stories of Colette, Suzy Solidor, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Violette Leduc, and Françoise Mallet-Joris remind us that queer history is deeply woven into the identity of the French Riviera. Through their courage, creativity, and refusal to hide who they were, these women helped shape the cultural richness that still defines the Côte d’Azur today.

Their legacy is not only written in books and museums — it lives on in the open, sunlit freedom of the Riviera itself.

Jean Marais: A Life of Art, Love, and Legacy on the French Riviera

 

Jean Marais (1913–1998) remains one of the most captivating figures in 20th-century French culture — a man whose life intertwined cinema, theatre, sculpture, ceramics, and deeply personal relationships that shaped his art. Born in Cherbourg and rising to become one of France’s most recognisable screen icons, Marais is celebrated not only for his talent but also for the quiet courage with which he lived his gay life in a time when such visibility was rare.

From Star of the Screen to Cocteau’s Muse

Marais’s rise began in the 1930s when he met writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, who would become both his artistic mentor and romantic partner. Their relationship, which lasted nearly a decade, was one of the most important gay love stories in French artistic history. Cocteau saw in Marais not just a leading man but a muse — someone capable of embodying myth, beauty, and poetic mystery.

Together they created some of the most iconic works of French cinema and theatre, including La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) and Orphée. Marais’s performance in these films defined an era; his face became inseparable from the dreamlike visual language that Cocteau pioneered. Though their romantic relationship ended, their artistic bond endured, and both men remained central figures in each other’s lives.

Marais later had other significant relationships, including with American dancer Georges Reich during the 1950s, and he eventually adopted a son, Serge Villain-Marais. While his personal life was often discreetly handled due to the social norms of the time, Marais never hid who he was to those around him, and he is remembered today as an important LGBTQ figure in French cultural history.

A Multi-Talented Artist

Beyond acting, Jean Marais was a prolific artist. He painted, sculpted, designed ceramics, and eventually became deeply involved in the pottery traditions of the French Riviera. His artistic versatility reflected a restless creative spirit — someone as comfortable moulding clay as he was performing a Shakespearean role or playing a masked villain in the Fantômas films.

A Final Home in the Côte d’Azur

In the later years of his life, Marais settled permanently in Vallauris, the Mediterranean town famous for pottery and once home to Picasso. Marais opened a ceramics gallery, designed festival posters, and contributed to the cultural life of the region. He became an honorary citizen, deeply loved by the community that embraced him not as a celebrity but as a neighbour, craftsman, and friend.

He died in Cannes on November 8, 1998, at the age of 84.

His Resting Place: A Work of Art in Itself

Jean Marais is buried in the Old Cemetery of Vallauris (Vieux Cimetière) on the French Riviera, and fittingly, his tomb is a piece of art — one he designed himself. The monument is striking: two sculpted masks bearing his likeness and, above them, a surreal mythological figure combining elements of a sphinx, a stag, and a mermaid. It is theatrical, symbolic, and unmistakably Marais — a tribute to both his imagination and his connection to mythic storytelling.

Visitors often describe the tomb not as a resting place but as a final artistic statement, one that reflects a lifetime spent blurring the lines between reality and legend.

An Enduring Legacy

Jean Marais’s influence lives on in French cinema, LGBTQ history, and the artistic identity of the Riviera. His beauty, talent, and bravery — subtle but undeniable — continue to inspire new generations. In Vallauris, where he lived and now rests, his presence is still felt in the ceramics workshops, the annual art festivals, and the quiet cemetery path where fans continue to pay tribute.

Marais lived a life shaped by love, storytelling, and the refusal to be anything but himself. Today, in the sunlight of the Côte d’Azur, his legacy shines brighter than ever.

Jean Cocteau: The French Riviera’s Timeless Visionary and LGBTQ Icon

 

The French Riviera has long been a magnet for artists, dreamers, and free spirits. Among the luminaries who found inspiration along its sunlit coast, few left as lasting a mark as Jean Cocteau — poet, painter, filmmaker, playwright, and one of the 20th century’s most multifaceted creatives. Beyond his immense artistic legacy, Cocteau’s life on the Riviera also stands as a testament to authenticity, courage, and the quiet power of living openly as a gay man during a time when doing so was far from accepted.

A Life Between Art and the Sea

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) first discovered the allure of the French Riviera in the 1920s, drawn by its golden light and tranquil beauty. He found refuge and inspiration in Villefranche-sur-Mer and at Villa Santo Sospri in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, between Nice and Monaco. There, he left behind one of his most enduring masterpieces — the Chapelle Saint-Pierre — a tiny fisherman’s chapel that he transformed into an explosion of color, symbolism, and emotion.

Inside, Cocteau’s murals blend Christian iconography with a distinctly human touch, filled with expressive faces and poetic tenderness. The chapel feels deeply personal, almost confessional — a fusion of art and spirituality filtered through his unique lens as both an artist and a man who lived on the margins of conventional society.

Cocteau’s connection to the Riviera deepened over the decades. He spent time with fellow artists such as Pablo Picasso, Francis Poulenc, and Christian Bérard, who, like him, blurred the boundaries between art forms and between traditional notions of love and identity.

Living Authentically in a Restrictive Era

In an age when homosexuality was still taboo, Cocteau never hid who he was. His openness was subtle yet defiant — expressed through his art, his writings, and his relationships. His long partnership with his “adopted son” Jean Marais, the celebrated actor and muse, remains one of the most iconic love stories in French cultural history. Marais appeared in many of Cocteau’s films, including La Belle et la Bête (1946), a cinematic masterpiece that redefined fairy tales as deeply personal works of art.

Cocteau’s life and work often blurred the line between myth and reality, dream and confession. His depictions of beauty, transformation, and otherness reflected his own sense of being an outsider — not just as an avant-garde artist, but as a gay man navigating a heteronormative world. Yet, rather than retreat, Cocteau celebrated the difference. His characters, whether gods, lovers, or monsters, always carried a sense of vulnerability and humanity that transcended societal norms.

A Lasting Riviera Legacy

Today, Jean Cocteau’s imprint is woven into the very fabric of the French Riviera. In Menton, near the Italian border, the Jean Cocteau Museum stands as a tribute to his prolific genius, housing hundreds of his drawings, ceramics, and manuscripts (currently closed for repair). Just steps away, the Bastion Museum, which Cocteau himself decorated, overlooks the Mediterranean — a poetic resting place for a man whose creativity seemed as boundless as the sea itself.

His Riviera years were not just a chapter of retreat but of rebirth — a time when he distilled his many identities into timeless art. Cocteau once said, “An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.” Yet through his work, he spoke volumes about freedom, love, and the courage to exist authentically.

The Riviera’s Queer Heritage

Jean Cocteau’s presence on the French Riviera laid the groundwork for what would become one of Europe’s most vibrant LGBTQ destinations. His spirit of self-expression and acceptance continues to echo through the region’s art, festivals, and cultural life. In celebrating Cocteau, we celebrate not just a singular artist, but a man who lived — and loved — on his own terms.

From the painted chapel in Villefranche to the gleaming shores of Menton, Jean Cocteau’s Riviera remains a place where art and identity meet the light of the Mediterranean — eternal, poetic, and profoundly human.