Carla sells family castle, may not return to her native land

Carla Bruni, the glamorous wife of president Nicolas Sarkozy, has sold her family's castle in Italy for USD 11.5 million, fuelling speculation that the French first lady may never return to her native land.

Carla, who had the reputation of a "man eater", seems to have settled down well with the flamboyant President. One year after her marriage to the French leader, it seems Carla saw it as an opportune time to liquidated the major family asset near the city of Turin to an Arab sheikh.

"Yes, we have finally found a buyer," said mother Marisa Bruni Tedeschi. "After all, we had finished with Castagneto Po, nobody went there any more," she was quoted as saying by the Italian daily La Stampa.
 
The property, jointly owned by Carla, her mother and her sister, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt over centuries.

The 40-room, 1,500-square-metre residence and grounds were bought by billionaire industrialist heir and father Alberto Bruni Tedeschi in 1952. The furniture and fittings of the residence had already sold for USD 12.8 million at a London auction, the report said.

Even as the Carla has charmed people around the world with a well-calibrated Gallic mix of dynamism and demureness, she may still have a major public relations problem on her hands in her native Italy.

A series of prickly political matters and Carla's preferring French citizenship over Italian has stirred a flurry of criticism in Italy, fuelling speculation that Carla may choose to stay away from her native land.

Since becoming the French first lady, Carla has been critical of many of the Italian government's policies and has been criticised in the country of her birth for influencing her husband to drop a court order to deport Marina Petrella, an ex-Red Brigade activist from France to Italy.

Carla also took a public swipe at the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in November for cracking a "racist" joke after Barack Obama's presidential victory. When the Italian premier said Obama was "young, handsome and well-tanned," an outraged Carla hit back, saying she was "glad to be French."
 
The Italian model-turned-singer, who celebrated her first wedding anniversary with the French leader earlier this week, has been an important influence on her husband. The couple were married last February following a whirlwind romance.

"I accord a lot of importance to what she tells me. Her views broaden my perspective, my thoughts," Sarkozy said.
 
"We have a quiet life, we've settled in. Our families get along. No really, I have nothing to complain about, she's great," Sarkozy told the Le Point magazine.