renovated to add a recording studio and gym. During its use on the show Witanhurst was on English Heritage's list of buildings "at risk". In 2002, during the first series of Fame Academy, nine portable buildings, a television studio and generators were erected in front of Witanhurst without the requisite consent required for a listed building. The production company Endemol withdrew their application to use Witanhurst for a planned third series of the show in 2004 following a critical report by planners from Camden London Borough Council. In 2007 the Assads sold Witanhurst to the British property developer Marcus Cooper for £32.5 million. Cooper subsequently repaired Witanhurst to satisfy Camden council's previous complaints, and put the property up for sale for £75 million through the estate agents Glentree Estates and Knight Frank. Witanhurst was bought by the family of the Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev through an offshore company called Safran Holdings, located in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands for £50 million in 2008. The owner of Witanhurst was not publicly known from its 2008 sale until the publication of a 2015 article by Ed Caesar in The New Yorker magazine. In September 2009 The Sunday Times erroneously stated that Witanhurst had been bought by Elena Baturina, the wife of the former Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, via an offshore front company. Baturina sued the newspaper's owners Times Newspapers, a subsidiary of News International. Times Newspapers apologised for the story and paid damages to Baturina in October 2011. The redevelopment of Witanhurst has received widespread attention in the media, much of it focusing on the large basement extension to the main house that extends for two storeys below the entire footprint of the building. Over 90,000 square feet, Witanhurst is the second largest private residence in London, after Buckingham Palace. It is said to be worth $450 million. Facilities The mansion has 65 rooms spread across three floors, including 25 bedrooms. One of the largest is the ballroom, measuring long with a height of . It has oak flooring and the timber wall panels are in walnut, with carved cornices embellished with gold leaf. Other rooms are the drawing room, study, entrance hall and staircase, and most of the bedrooms are all in an opulent classical style. Other richly decorated rooms include the dining room, Chinese room, billiard room, and the gallery hallway. Access to the property is