Livingstone brothers buy Cliveden for hotel business

Secretive property tycoons Ian and Richard Livingstone are buying the Cliveden stately home famed for its role in the Profumo scandal.

The deal means that 20 hotels in the collapsed Von Essen Hotels empire have now been sold or are under offer.

The Livingstone brothers will put the mansion - where Secretary of State for War John Profumo first met call girl Christine Keeler - into their growing hotel property business.

They have also been named preferred bidder to take on the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath. The asking price for the two hotels was £57.5 million.

Auctioneers Christie + Co still have another eight hotels to sell on behalf of the administrators of Von Essen Hotels, including Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire.

Sources said there had been strong interest from UK and international buyers, particularly as occupancy levels in UK hotels have been fairly robust despite the economic crisis.

Dalhousie Castle in Edinburgh and the five-star Hotel Verta in Battersea are among others still to be sold.