An opulent Las Vegas compound belonging to the late magician duo Siegfried & Roy has sold for $3 million (£2.4m) within days of being listed for sale.
German-born Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn —better known as Siegfried & Roy— were entertainers who were famous for their stage shows featuring white lions and tigers.
The original Tiger Kings, they purchased their extravagant compound in 1982 and kept the property until their deaths, Roy’s from Covid-19 in 2020, and Siegfried from cancer the following year.
It was purchased by Brett and George Carden, owners of the Carden International Circus, on 24 March this year – 20 days after being listed.
Known as “the Jungle Palace”, the estate is everything you’d expect from the flamboyant duo, who kept horses, donkeys, swans, African cranes, jungle cats and their famous collection of white lions and tigers at their home.
Accordingly, the property has multiple animal enclosures, including a bird and cat sanctuary.
The pair’s love of exotic wildlife is reflected in their design choices too.
The master bedroom is safari-themed, with a mural of an elephant over the bed (black, by the way); an ornamental elephant’s head in the bathroom (also black) and a large cheetah mural in another bedroom.
There is big cat-inspired artwork throughout the house and grounds, including a custom-made stained-glass window depicting a lion in the bathroom; another in the library showing a Siegfried & Roy crest flanked by two tigers, and a statue of Siegfried and Roy with a lion standing between them.
While the duo lived there, white tigers and lions roamed freely and were said to sleep in the same bed as Roy, who raised the cubs from birth.
Spanning eight acres, the sprawling compound comprises the 8,750 sq ft main house, with a pool and two detached studios, plus three guesthouses, two of which also have their own swimming pools.
The four houses, three swimming pools, ten-car garage and landscaped gardens are surrounded and secured by six electric gates. At the front, the gold-plated gates bear their initials.
The Jungle House is, appropriately, full of trees, some stretching to full height indoors.
There is a jacuzzi in the corner of the dining room —why not?— water features in the grounds and on the roof terrace; a sunbed and circus-style tented ceilings.
The main house’s façade is castle-like, with high white walls, a giant front door and a bell tower.
“This legendary property is one of a kind,” reads the original listing by Aaron Taylor of eXp Realty. “The possibilities with this property are endless.”
Siegfried and Roy met on a German cruise ship, combining their love of animals to produce their own stage show which they toured around the European club circuit.
In 1967, they were invited to perform in Las Vegas, where they remained for the rest of their lives. They headlined at Mirage, a casino resort, between 1990 and 2003 – when Roy was mauled by one of his tigers during the show.
Roy lived, but was left partially paralysed and forced to retire. Roy continued to live with the tiger, called Montecore, until its death in 2014.
After the attack, Siegfried and Roy stopped using the Jungle Palace as their primary residence, favouring their other 100-acre compound in northwest Las Vegas called Little Bavaria.
The vast estate, which included two mansions and an aquatic park, was sold in 2021 and has been earmarked to become an apartment complex.
According to property records, the Jungle Palace was sold in February this year to Tracy Spadafora, the estate manager for S&R productions, and Jacob Taylor, a Las Vegas Realtor, who re-listed it two weeks later.
The property was removed just five days after it was listed in March, and sold to the Cardens for $3 million 20 days later.
The Cardens reportedly intend to turn the property into a tourist attraction. “What we would like to do is preserve it for people to make it a shrine for them basically — a piece of history of Las Vegas that’s not torn down,” Brett Carden told local press. “It’s part of Las Vegas.”
