Italy's paradise island goes to New Zealander businessman

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-10-6 8:41:25

The paradise island of Budelli off the northern coast of Italy's Sardinia was sold to a New Zealander businessman for 2.9 million euros ($3.9 million), Rai state television said on Saturday.

The tiny islet of around 1.6 square kilometers was auctioned off to the highest bidder after its Milan-based owner, a real estate company, went bankrupt.

Local media said cash-strapped Italian government was not able to raise the funding but may enforce the right of first refusal within 90 days, after which the island will be officially sold.

The island, part of La Maddalena Archipelago National Park, is nowadays protected by strict landscape, environmental and hydro-geological restrictions.

"The first words of the new owner (Michal Harte), who is described as an environmental philanthropist, hopefully confirm the security levels of this operation," the park's president, Giuseppe Bonanno, told Rai.

In any case, he stressed, "the safeguard regulations govern this territory and we will check his real purposes, making clear that there are Italian and European environmentally protective restrictions."

A media campaign, however, has called on the environment minister to save the heritage for the Italian people.

Sardinian regional president Ugo Cappellacci said the island is a priceless treasure that should return to being part of a public property.

"An island should be never put on sale. This is a piece of news of the past century that we would not like to hear again," he was quoted as saying by local media.

One of a group of uninhabited islands originally populated in the 13th century by monastic hermits, Budelli is covered with rich Mediterranean vegetation and is home to a variety of wildlife.

The Pink Beach on the island's southeastern side is well-known in the world for the pink color of its sand because of microscopic fragments of corals and shells.

Budelli's only existing buildings are the caretaker's house, a postwar military structure, a small timber yard, the ruins of a cabin and a dry stone wall along the beach.

Just days before, it was disclosed that another deserted islet in Italy, Santo Stefano, part of a group of islands northwest of Naples, is also on sale.

The owner was reportedly open to "confidential negotiations" for the sale of about 25 acres out of a total 28 of the island, described as an "unspoiled natural paradise."

The three acres not on sale belong to the government and include Borbonico, the so-called "celebrity prison" due to its famous inmates, which opened in 1795 and was closed in 1964.

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