Star Wars creator George Lucas splashes $40m on London mansion in bid to escape Trump's America
The property, in the high-end London neighbourhood of St John's Wood, was previously owned by a City lawyer.
Star Wars creator George Lucas has splashed out a whopping £40million on a house in Northwest London.
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Marking the UK’s largest property sale this year, the 81-year-old is said to have moved to London in a bid to get away from Donald Trump’s United States.
The property, in the high-end London neighbourhood of St John's Wood, was previously owned by a City lawyer.
While not publicly critical of the Trump administration, Lucas has been clear his iconic space opera is about democracies turning into dictatorships.
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Speaking last year, Lucas said: “It was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where Nixon was trying to run for a [second] term, which got me to thinking historically about how do democracies get turned into dictatorships?”
“Because the democracies aren’t overthrown; they’re given away.”
Lucas, having sold Lucasfilm to Disney in a 2012 deal worth $4.1billion, owns a slew of massive properties across the United States.
The director purchased a $28million villa in Carpinteria, California, six years ago and owns the 2,500-acre Skywalker Ranch in Northern California.
Lucas’ purchase comes amid the backdrop of a massive fall in high-value property sales in England’s capital.
Scores of mansions across the capital are being left temporarily abandoned, giving rise to the term "lights out London" coined by estate agents.
The phrase refers to scores of mansions and luxury apartments which are left sitting in the dark by the time evening comes.
Labour's focus on targeting the wealthy has led to a reported increase in landlords looking to sell their luxury mansions.
Recent data from Hamptons estate agents shows competition for homes in desirable areas has died down following an absence of overseas buyers and international investors, the Standard reports.
Only two homes in the exclusive Montpelier Square estate in Knightsbridge were listed for sale during 2019 but the Telegraph report this figure has more than trebled.
Anthony Payne of property agents LonRes told the newspaper: "It used to be that houses never came up for sale in Montpelier Square.
"Now there are nine on the market there and they just can't sell. Nobody wants to be there.
"There's a weird dynamic now where the international community doesn't have the same level of demand for London and yet Britons have been priced out, so Knightsbridge hasn't found its new level.”