Monday Morning Millionaire: Robert Edsel’s Landmark Estate Hits the Market for $16 Million on Turtle Creek Plaza

Photos: Dan Piassick Photography

Yes, this is the home with the blue-tiled roof. Wait until you see the gardens, smell the lavender, rose, and hydrangea. Actually, it’s listed for $15,900,000 with the capable Madeline Jobst at Dave Perry-Miller & Associates, an Ebby Halliday Company. And it is one of the most significant homes in Dallas, a landmark estate owned (and restored) by one of our most well known and remarkable citizens, the man who has helped publicize stolen cultural artifacts and art confiscated and hoarded during World War II by Adolph Hitler, his henchmen, and various soldiers.



The owner is Robert Edsel. You may know him as a Dallas horizontal drilling technology pioneer turned prolific writer who has also became well-known for helping hunt down those artifacts and art from World War II. He has produced one documentary on the preservation efforts, The Rape of Europa, and written several books. Edsel’s first book, Rescuing DaVinci,  details the many soldiers who helped save art in the chaotic days following World War II and the liberation of Germany. He also wrote The Monuments Men, and his third book, Saving Italy, released May 1, details the artifacts in Italy and how they were saved.  The stories will be adapted into a new movie to be released late this year. That movie will be directed by and and star none other than George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and John Goodman. If I could buy my ticket now, I would!

I had a chance to tour the 6717 square foot home last week, and I am still in awe. It is amazing, and a property I cannot write about from just one quick trip. Every molecule is perfect and embodied with excruciating detail, from the perfectly curved round toe molding pieces to the closets to the sight line visuals and artistic surprises he unearthed in the restoration of the home. I got the feeling that in Bellosguardo, as 3828 Turtle Creek is called, Edsel was also unearthing and excavating treasures, this time architectural. So I have a date with the interior architect who helped Robert, Ike Isenhour, to take you on a detailed, room-by-room trip. Ike curated the architectural renovation and decoration of the project, a process that took years.

Meantime, feast your eyes and know the basic deets: three bedrooms, four baths and two half baths. A living room with a twenty five foot high beamed ceiling, a fantastic dining room-library combination  — perfection for those of us who read when they dine alone at home — a den/study, gym, 1500 bottle wine cellar, spa, unbelievable master suite and bathrooms with a private terrace off the master with a wood-burning fireplace and incredible views of the Bisazza glass mosaic tiled saltwater pool, the incredible gardens that were so fragrantly pungent I thought I was wearing perfume hours after I left, and of course, the banks of Turtle Creek which this home, circa 1926, graces.