The owner of the luxurious property 'Villa Fanini' in the Italian region of Tuscany has officially confirmed to Het Laatste Nieuws that King Albert offered 50 million euros for the 31-hectare domain with its enormous villa, vineyards, swimming pool, hotel and restaurant. The paper questions how he could make the offer with Albert’s official private wealth of 12.4 million euros (excluding his country residence in the South of France and his yacht).
The private wealth of the Royal Family is still one of the greatest mysteries in the country, says Jan Van den Berghe, a well-known royal watcher. Van den Berghe.
In 1999 the business paper 'Euro Business' maintained that the Belgian Royal Family were 2.25 billion euros strong. That amount was the result of months of investigations by two British journalists, but it includes all properties of the Crown, such as palaces.
Van den Berghe thinks that the result of 200 million euros, as calculated by a British paper, is more realistic. It is remarkable that less than two weeks ago the King spoke at length about poverty in his 21 July speech and called on solidarity with the almost 15% poor and needy people in our country. “With the 50 million euros offer in mind, his speech is questionable”, according to Van den Berghe.
