The Exceptional Villas of the LVMH Group and the French Riviera
If there is one place that truly evokes luxury, it is undoubtedly the French Riviera. And this may well be the reason why the LVMH group occasionally acquires large, prestigious villas there. Recently, the LVMH group treated itself to a villa worth around fifty million euros, located on the heights of Cannes. A look back at an extraordinary transaction and the acquisition of Villa Bagatelle on the French Riviera.
Why does the LVMH group buy luxury villas?
Investment in real estate always responds to two key imperatives. The first is to secure capital by investing in property. Indeed, real estate investment helps protect against the devaluation of a currency and therefore against inflation. It is also a way to diversify one’s wealth and assets. In the case of a luxury group, it also helps reassure financial partners and perhaps even small shareholders.
For the LVMH group, purchasing Villa Bagatelle in Cannes for €46.5 million in 2024 is a way of anchoring the group in the long term. This immense Art Deco–style villa, located on the heights of Cannes, features twelve bedrooms. It also boasts two swimming pools—one indoor and one set within the gardens. The villa’s surface area is said to be around 3,000 square meters. Suffice it to say that, with such generous volumes, this prestigious Cannes address will undoubtedly serve to showcase the famous group’s parties and events. It is also a way of establishing itself as a key local player during events such as the Cannes Film Festival.
From a marketing standpoint, the purchase—and the media coverage surrounding the acquisition—of Villa Bagatelle is a stroke of genius. Almost the entire press picked up the story, and it will remain etched in the collective memory of the French public for a long time.
The history of Villa Bagatelle
This imposing residence, located on the heights of Cannes, stands in the mythical and highly sought-after La Californie district. It was built in 1928 for Duke Auguste-Armand de La Force. In 1976, the villa underwent its first major transformation under architect Gérard Gallet. On the garden side, landscape designer Jean Delogne was entrusted with redesigning all the outdoor spaces. Later, faced with the pharaonic costs of maintenance and ownership, the villa was divided into apartments between 1982 and the 2000s.
From that point on, the villa once again became a single, indivisible property. In 2018, designer and architect Philippe Avanzi was tasked with restoring the villa to its former glory.
As for ownership, the history of Villa Bagatelle is quite different. Indeed, it has often been at the center of conflicts of interest and legal issues. One of the first celebrities to become the owner of the property was none other than Lucienne Suzanne Dhotelle, née Vreurick. This singer from the 1920s, nicknamed La Môme Moineau, was born in Reims. A woman who lived a thousand lives and is now largely forgotten. Later, ownership passed to an Algerian businessman, Raffik Khalifa—an entrepreneur who experienced a meteoric rise during the 1990s, a true golden boy who founded the Khalifa Group. At the time, this businessman acquired the villa with the same objective as the LVMH group: to make it a prestigious residence for entertaining clients. Then, following the group’s financial difficulties, Villa Bagatelle successively became the property of two Russian oligarchs.
