Here's a story that's almost too star-studded to be true: the UK's Daily Mail (and a handful of other international publications) reports that actress Angelina Jolie has purchased New York's heart-shaped Petra Island, the one that boasts two Frank Lloyd Wright houses and a location that's just 15 minutes (by helicopter) from New York City, for her long-term beau, a little no-name known as Brad Pitt. It's no secret that Pitt, who's 50th birthday is Dec. 18, is something of an architecture nerd, having recruited Frank Gehry for his NOLA-based Make It Right organization, as well as dabbled (and then dabbled some more) in architectural furniture design—so a starchitecture-connected private island makes for a, well, superb present.
On Petra Island itself—in total 11 acres on Lake Mahopac—is a cottage designed by Wright and built in 1950 as well as a main residence, also designed by FLW, though not realized until 2008, some 58 years after the architect's death. Indeed, the brokerbabble says the 2008 home "is considered by some to be one of the most spectacular designs of his career," with 1,500 square feet of skylights and "vast expanses" of mahogany. What the pair purportedly paid? $12.2M. (Or is it £12.2M? Reports are muddled.) In any case, that seems a fairly low price for a private island of this pedigree, but who knows? It's been languishing on the market for years now, after all. Anyway, the photos are below.
· Angelina Jolie 'spends $12.2 million on secluded heart-shaped island' for Brad Pitt's 50th birthday [Daily Mail]
· Buy Petra Island [Private Islands Online]
· All Brad Pitt coverage [Curbed National]
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