A luxury Miami Beach mansion, where Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace lived and died, has been sold for $41.5 million.

 

 

 During an auction held earlier this week, the mansion was sold to a business consortium including the Nakash family, the owner of Jordache Jeans.  

 

 The Nakash clan already has an interest in the Victor Hotel, next door to the mansion, and plans to consolidate the two properties to create a hotel.

 

 At the end of Tuesday's auction, Joe Nakash announced his intention to ask permission of the Versace family to name the new establishment the Versace Hotel Villa.

 

 The winning bid was presented by the VM South Beach LLC group, which in 2011 acquired the mortgage on the mansion from Germany's WestLB bank and among whose partners are the Nakash family and Gindi Capital.

 

 Versace's former villa, for which bidding was started at $25 million, is just off the beach and – these days – is a prime attraction for tourists, the curious and admirers of the slain Italian fashion designer.

 

 The Italian designer was gunned down July 15, 1997, by Andrew Cunanan, a male prostitute suspected of murdering four other men. He committed suicide in a Miami Beach houseboat eight days later.

 

IANS