Farewell prix d 'amour'

Prix D'Amour (Prize of Love), the spectacular historic mansion in Mosman Park, Perth Australia, owned by our very own Rose Lacson Porteous, is no more. While a small crowd of onlookers stood transfixed, a demolition team began knocking down the fabulous mansion built by Rose's husband, the late mining magnate Lang Hancock in 1990, for a reported sum of A$30 million. Hancock, who was 39 years older than his beautiful wife, died a few years after the mansion was finished. She is now married to real estate mogul Willie Porteous, who, Ninfa Leonardia says, looks like Hollywood actor Glenn Ford (!).

It's hard to believe that only a few years ago, Ninfa and I were invited by Rose to spend a week in Perth where we lived in the awesome luxury of Prix D'Amour. The trip via Singapore Airlines, was long despite a stopover in Singapore, but we enjoyed the excellent cuisine and the latest movies on the flight. It was a very cold night when we got off the plane and we were so happy to see our good friend, the late Charlie Jimenez, who came loaded with warm overcoats to protect us from the freezing cold. Even in the dark, from a distance, Prix D'Amour looked like a palace glowing with lights against the star-lit sky. We took the elevator to go to the east suite, where we were billeted - I slept in Rose's daughter Johanna's ultra luxurious bedroom while Ninfa was in the adjoining guest room. Each room had a balcony overlooking the picturesque Swan River where we could see the yachts below resting on the harbor. The view alone was breathtaking.

The next morning, Rose joined us for breakfast in the lovely morning room as sunlight streaked down the tall windows, giving us another stunning view of the landscape. It was a most exciting week full of dinner parties, shopping sprees and sightseeing tours around beautiful Perth in a cream-colored Bentley, with Willie as our guide. Each time we came home to the mansion, we still couldn't get over how beautiful it looked. The white-pillared palace was modeled on the Tara Plantation, from the cinematic classic, Gone With the Wind. Inside, the extra large rooms were filled with priceless objects d'art, Steinway pianos, expensive paintings, opulent drapes and the unbelievable chandeliers! Everything was simply so extravagantly rich - like a beautiful dream.

Before the excavators moved in, workers spent months stripping the fittings from the home. This included the spectacular Waterford chandelier (Rose told us it was one of the biggest privately-owned chandeliers in the world!), which alone, took five days to dismantle (it was THAT huge!). The 8,117-square meters property will be sub-divided into 10 lots priced at about $3.7 million each.

"But don't worry", Willie says, "No grass grows under Rose' feet". She has designed a new and very interesting luxury home which they will call, "Mini-Amour". A long-time neighbor, former WA Finance Minister Max Evans said he was sorry to see the landmark fall. "It was a unique, beautiful building - it had real class", he said, "For a lot of people who came to Perth, the first thing they wanted to see was Prix D'Amour." And like Scarlett O'Hara's Tara, it was now gone with the wind.*