Forbes family to sell house and artwork

This only seems to be in the Financial Times - which is a subscription service.


The Forbes family, the wealthy US dynasty that owns the eponymous media group, will sell its west London home alongside a collection of its Victorian art as part of estate planning for future generations.

Old Battersea House, which has played host to meetings between influential figures in politics and business as well as kings and princes, will be brought to the market next week with a price of £12m.

Unusually, the family plans to sell much of the artwork that hangs on the walls of the Grade-II listed home, ranging from Thomas Gainsborough to `as well as a collection of Royal memorabilia including a pair of Queen Victoria’s knickers currently hung behind the doors of the state bedroom.

The house, which has been at the centre of the Forbes family activities in the UK, has seen parties attended by Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Warren Buffett, Elizabeth Taylor and various members of the royal family.

Christopher Forbes, vice-chairman of Forbes, said the family was selling the property as part of a wider plan to safeguard the family fortune. Forbes is a wealthy extended family originating in Boston, though it can be traced back to Sir John de Forbes in Scotland in the 12th century.

Mr Forbes told the Financial Times: “My siblings and I are not getting any younger and we need to do some estate planning. We are still going through who exactly wants what. . . Battersea was not the most desirable neighbourhood when my father bought it.”

Savills is marketing the house for the Forbes. Robin Chatwin, the agent at Savills who is overseeing the process, said the house was one of London’s finest.

“With or without the magnificent collection, the house itself is a work of art,” he said.

Situated over the river from Chelsea, the manor house was designated by English Heritage as being “of more than specific interest” when it was listed in 1954, and includes 10 bedrooms, a baroque hallway and panelled drawing rooms.

The house contains British paintings, watercolours and sculptures from the 19th and early 20th century valued at several million pounds, including works by Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir Henry Raeburn as well as a significant number of Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian paintings by Sir John Everett Millais, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt and Albert Moore.

Old Battersea House is also the home to the largest collection of Royal portraits and memorabilia outside the Royal Collection, ranging from Sir George Hayter’s portrait of Queen Victoria to her knickers.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.