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Versace mansion throwback to Miami renaissance

Past the ivy-covered gates on Ocean Drive, the 1930s mansion is an expression of the designer's personal style and lust for excess that made it and South Beach a magnet for the creative, artistic and jet set.

"It helped create that early essence," said Michael Capponi, a nightclub promoter who threw parties at Versace's villa in its glory days. "It was the defining house of the era."

As lawyers and realtors scramble to prepare the estate for a September 17 auction, they opened its doors to a group of reporters and photographers, offering a rare glimpse inside the 10-bedroom, 23,000-square-foot (2,135-square-metre) mansion.

After Versace was gunned down at the mansion's entrance gate in 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, telecom magnate Peter Loftin bought the property and turned it into a boutique hotel. Loftin is now facing bankruptcy and has been trying to sell the house for more than a year.

Known as Casa Casuarina, it was initially listed for $125 million. The asking price was recently cut to $75 million, with bids to start at $25 million, according to Fisher Auction Co.

Versace bought the mansion in 1992 for $2.9 million and spent $33 million to create a marble-and-fresco-covered palace, complete with 54-foot (16.5-metre) pool of black marble mosaic tiles inlaid with 24-carat gold. The snake-haired Medusa head, Versace's logo, is on display throughout the house.

His over-the-top decor - as displayed in his former bedroom where a sprawling, double king-sized bed is flanked by paintings of Grecian, nymph-like characters playing lyres under palm trees - came to be emblematic of South Beach's new over-the-top lifestyle.

Before Versace bought the three-story mansion, South Beach, the lower section of Miami Beach, was "pretty much a slum," said Tony Magaldi, a co-owner of the News Cafe on Ocean Drive, where Versace was a regular when he was in town.

Ocean Drive's bright pink and pastel-blue Art Deco hotels, which now exude glamour and luxury, sat in disrepair when Versace arrived.

"He found Miami Beach when he was delayed on the way to the airport on the way to Havana and fell in love with it, no matter how neglected," said Tara Solomon, a South Beach public relations maven and event organizer who wrote a newspaper column "Queen of the Night" in the 1990s.