San Francisco renovator's delight with links to colourful art figure listed for $US15 million

San Francisco’s famously expensive property market has a renovator’s delight on offer, in the form of a seven-bedroom, six-bathroom home with spectacular views of the Golden Gate bridge – and a twist.

Listed for $US15 million ($21.8 million) through Sotheby’s Anne Herrera, the property – described as awaiting “vision and creativity” – played a role, of sorts, in a million-dollar art fraud.

It had belonged to Luke Brugnara, a real estate investor who got into the commercial property game in San Francisco in the early 1990s, moving into the Las Vegas market by the end of the decade.

Nicknamed “Lucky Luke”, Brugnara reportedly bought 224 Sea Cliff Avenue through one of his companies in 2002, paying $US7 million.

The home had been where comedian Cheech Marin lived while filming Nash Bridges, with a 2003 Forbes article describing the Hollywood figure’s art collection, hung on the home’s walls, as a trigger for Brugnara’s own artistic passion.

Brugnara ran into difficulties with the Nevada Gaming Commission, with its refusal to give him a gambling license in 2001. He was also briefly the landlord of late singer Michael Jackson, renting out his Las Vegas mansion to the troubled star for six months for $US1 million in 2006.

In 2010, Brugnara pleaded guilty to charges related to tax evasion involving $US45 million worth of property sales. He also pleaded guilty to a form of poaching, in that he had prevented protected steelhead trout from migrating upstream by blocking an opening in his private dam in Gilroy, California.

After being released from prison in 2012, Brugnara ordered five crates of artwork, worth millions of dollars, from an art dealer in 2014, ostensibly for his planned museum.

The dealer in question was troubled to find the delivery location was, in fact, his coral-coloured clifftop home in San Francisco. Despite her concerns, she went ahead and dropped off the artwork to his garage.

Brugnara later refused to pay, saying the artwork had been given to him as a gift. When attempts to secure its return ground to a halt the FBI was called in, and their search turned up all but one of the missing pieces – a bronze Edgar Degas sculpture known as Little Dancer. 

Once arrested and charged, Brugnara briefly escaping custody in the lead up to the trial – running from a court building after meeting with his lawyer and being caught after six days – and later opted to represent himself in court.

It didn’t go well, with Brugnara reportedly throwing tantrums and directing personal insults at other people in court, at one point telling a lawyer that “she dressed like a Nazi”.

Sentenced to seven years in prison in 2015, Brugnara appealed – this time with legal counsel, who argued that he shouldn’t have been allowed to represent himself due to his mental instability.

The appeal failed.

The Sea Cliff Avenue home had been listed for sale in 2016 for $US19.675 million, making it the second most expensive home in San Francisco, but it was later reportedly pulled from the market with some confusion as to whether or not it had actually sold, despite reports of a deal.

Real estate website Curbed noted in January 2018 that while Zillow records still showed the home as sold, a lawyer for Mr Brugnara’s wife had told them that this was not the case, and it was no longer for sale.

Having now returned to the market vacant as a bankruptcy sale ready for a makeover, Ms Herrera told SFGate the home had a “significant price drop” after its listing at the height of the market.

“The current list price for 224 Sea Cliff reflects the fact that the property has deferred maintenance, but has the potential to be as grand as its cliff-side neighbours,” she said.