In 2013, billionaire Elon Musk acquired a prestigious mansion in Los Angeles with a very special personal value. In addition to the estate being located in the prestigious Bel Air neighborhood, the mansion was also distinctive because it belonged to one of the businessman’s favourite actors, Gene Wilder, famous for playing roles such as Willy Wonka and in Young Frankenstein.
Wilder lived in that residence until 2007, and when he moved out, he left behind a large number of personal belongings. Therefore, rather than a simple real-estate play, Musk paid $6.7 million to acquire the property with the aim of turning the house into a museum to pay homage to Wilder and ensure no one could tarnish his memory. However, Musk’s idea didn’t end as he had planned.
The house in honour of Gene Wilder
In 2020, seven years after Musk acquired the property with no intention of living there, he decided to put the mansion on the market in frustration that prompted him to sell some of his possessions. However, Wilder’s legacy had to remain intact, so the businessman increased the value of the house to $9.5 million and imposed the condition that the house had to maintain all of the characteristic features that recalled Wilder.
It was an essential requirement that no renovations be carried out. It was also forbidden to remove any items from the house museum.
The task of finding a buyer interested in acquiring the property with all these conditions seemed complicated, however, a few days after putting the house on the market, an interested couple appeared who seemed to meet Musk’s main requirement: keeping Wilder’s legacy alive. The man turned out to be Gene Wilder’s nephew, so he contacted the CEO of Starlink and Tesla to begin negotiations.
However, despite both sides agreeing not to tarnish Wilder’s memory, the problem the couple had was the money the businessman was asking for the house. Therefore, Musk decided to make one of his surprising bets, and would not only reduce the price but would also finance part of the purchase.
Elon Musk’s worst misstep
Elon was convinced by the idea of having a relative of Wilder take over the property, so he decided to reduce the purchase price to $7 million and reached an agreement with the couple to finance the house and recover the money little by little. However, as a result of the pandemic, the couple’s situation worsened, causing many of the payments to be delayed, forcing Musk to send them an ultimatum.
In July 2024, the couple decided to put the house up for sale for $12.5 million. Seeing that they weren’t able to sell it, they reduced the price to $9.5 million. Since then, the house has not yet been sold. The tenants remain in the home, and Elon Musk has not received his money.
The story doesn’t end there, as six months after the foreclosure process began, the house was taken off the market, making its future sale even more complicated. Furthermore, Wilder’s nephew signed an agreement with Los Angeles County declaring the property a “historical landmark” and prohibiting any interior or exterior renovations.
Therefore, this case may go down as Elon Musk’s worst business venture to date.