The famed pink sand of the Sardinian island of Budelli in the Maddalena archipelago is being sold to collectors on the Internet, the Sardegna Rubata e Depredata (Sardinia Robbed and Despoiled) Association said Tuesday.
The Budelli sand is among the most coveted by sand fans, the
group said.
Five years ago the island off Sardinia returned to the public
domain when a judge handed it over to the Parco La Maddalena
national park, scotching the plans of New Zealand millionaire
Michael Harte who had bought it for three million euros.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature urged the government to "run the
archipelago in the best way possible" amid a row over management
and expenses.
Two years earlier, in 2014, a Sardinia judge ruled Italy had a
preemptive right to buy back the stunning island off the
region's coast after it was bought by Harte, a Commonwealth Bank
of Australia (CBA) executive, at auction in October 2013.
The sale of the tiny island of Budelli to CBA Chief
Information Officer Harte for 2.94 million euros sparked an
outcry that forced the Italian government to take steps to
recover it.
The island had been put on the block after its original
owner, Milan-based Immobiliare Nuova Gallura real estate
company, filed for bankruptcy.
When he bought the 1.6-square-km uninhabited island off
Sardinia's northernmost coast, 49-year-old Harte, an avowed
conservationist, reportedly said he was committed to ensuring it
remained pristine.
Italy's Senate in 2013 allocated some three million euros
to buy Budelli back from Harte, claiming it has preemptive
rights over the uncontaminated island that lies in the Maddalena
archipelago between Sardinia and Corsica, because it belongs in
the geomarine national park by the same name.
The sale was reversed despite a personal campaign by Harte, who
wrote to the Italian environment minister to plead his case.
Harte raised concerns about the ability of the
cash-strapped Italian government to properly fund the
preservation of the island's untouched ecosystem.
Michelangelo Antonioni famously shot some scenes on
Budelli's pink beaches for his iconic 1964 movie Red Desert.
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