According to a judge who expressed his final decision on Tuesday, the Budelli island in Sardinia, popular for the pink sand, is now back to the public domain after the plans of New Zeland millionaire Michael Harte (who had bought it for three million euros) was scotched.
The story goes back to two years ago when a Sardinian judge gave Italy the right to buy the island again, after it was bought by Harte, a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) executive, during auction in October 2013. 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.
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