La Villa Contenta, home of Robert and Liane Weintraub, and Queen Sophie's mansion in the HBO series True Blood, remains on the market as what was Malibu's most expensive listing at $54 million. The most outstanding elements of this unique property are its ornate carved marble natatorium with a frieze over the door and 6 glitzy chandeliers, a pool inside the pool house, one of the largest private California greenhouses, an amazing main motor-court of thousands of set-in- grass tumbled black and cream granite stones, and a 2500-year-old lion head sculpture obtained from the base of Mount Vesuvius.
The two-level 16,107-square-foot home, built in 2002, features 13 bedrooms and 14 baths, a dining room that seats 24, library, family room/kitchen, hand-carved French limestone ceiling, two amethyst and rock crystal 18th-century candle chandeliers, a Hermés marble fireplace in the library, a solarium that seats 10 at a table, a rustic kitchen with stone fireplace, a billiards room and wet bar paneled in English pine and bamboo, a several thousand bottle wine cellar with barrel-vaulted ceiling, screening room and gym, media room with 14-foot screen, laundry room, 2 staircases, and elevator. Many french doors lead out to the grounds with ocean backdrop.
The property, at 26848 E Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California 90265, contains almost eight acres of prime Malibu oceanfront property with panoramic views of the Pacific, on a bluff above the Malibu Cove Colony Road. It has an outdoor living room, infinity salt water 25-meter swimming pool with travertine pool deck that holds several hundred people and state-of-the-art Viking kitchen, ocean-side sculptured gardens, several fountains, hundreds of priceless specimen trees and rare plantings, acres of manicured lawn, an exotic desert garden, an extraordinary rose garden of over 1,000 rose bushes, championship tennis court hidden by plantings covering the four walls and with viewing deck, and an entirely organic kitchen garden planted with a variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs and cutting plants.
The natatorium offers a "'underwater' baroque fantasy comprised of about a million seashells. The pietra-dura entry hall is flanked by two elegant changing rooms – one for ladies (“Venus”) and the other for gentlemen (“Neptune”), each paneled in rare onyx and adorned with shells, with comfortable lounge areas, large steam showers and every amenity imaginable. Tiled in Murano glass, the lap pool is equipped with swim jets." The glass ceilings are 20 feet high, the walls have a hand-painted mural and seashell and mirror star panels, there is a huge golden onyx fireplace, and the shell-encrusted chandeliers look like octopi. The pool pavilion and greenhouse are connected by floating travertine slabs.
Another building, that could be a 6 bedroom house, has polished green Venetian marble walls and Baccarat and Murano chandeliers, a kitchen, laundry, parking area and staff quarters, and is currently used as an office. There is a one-bedroom zen guest suite and plenty of bedrooms and amenities for staff and security.
In December 2010, the property came on the market as 12,045 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 8.5 bathrooms at $75 million for all, or $34.5 million for the main house on 1.52 acres, including one pool and the tennis court. In March 2012, the entire property was $54 million, according to Chris Cortazzo's Coldwell Banker listing, or just the main house at $23.8 million. The November 2012 listing says the main house on 1.52 acres is at $23.8 million, and just the natatorium, 26900 Pacific Coast Highway, is $22.5 million.
Of note is that Mrs. Weintraub is committed to saving the environment and children, having started the organic baby food company Tasty Brand. Richard Weintraub is president of Weintraub Real Estate Group.
La Villa Contenta has also been in the movies, Adam Sandler's Funny People, and Paul Rudd's I Love You Man.
For another slideshow of the property, see NBC Bay Area's site. View more pictures of the shell art in the natatorium from True Blood.
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