The Neverland farm of the late pop star Michael Jackson is said to have been sold to a billionaire investor for a quarter of the initial asking price. Ron Burkle, a former friend of Jackson, recently bought the property in Los Olivos, California.
The Wall Street Journal reported that he paid $ 22 million (16 16.2 million) for Neverland. The 1,100-acre farm first went on sale for $ 100 million in 2015. Since then Neverland, north of Santa Barbara, has been steadily in and out of the market, ranking last year for the lowest price of $ 31 million. dollar.
Jackson initially paid about $ 19.5 million for Neverland, which he named after an imaginary island where children never grow up. The singer bought Neverland in 1987 and stood at the height of his fame.
He turned the farm into an entertainment complex, building a zoo and a fair, where he regularly entertained children and their families.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Neverland became the center of various investigations into allegations of child sexual assault against Jackson. He denied allegations that he had used Neverland as a fantasy world to seduce little boys. In 2005, Jackson was tried and acquitted of charges he abused a 13-year-old boy on the farm.
Jackson never returned to Neverland. Four years later, in June 2009, Jackson died at another home in Los Angeles after suffering a cardiac arrest caused by a drug overdose.
Since his death, the singer has been the subject of further abuse allegations, including those made in a documentary called Leaving Neverland in 2019.
