Crespi/Hicks Estate: Most Expensive Home on the Market Asking $135 Million

With a $135 million asking price, the famed Crespi/Hicks Estate in Dallas is the most expensive home on the market in the country right now. That's the news -- but the real story goes far deeper than that. The home is an architectural masterpiece harkening back to the great, regal estates of the 1920s and '30s, said Douglas Newby of Douglas Newby & Associates, which has the listing.

The home was designed by renowned architect Maurice Fatio for Italian Count Pio Crespi, who came to the United States to head up the American leg of his wealthy family's cotton empire. With ties to European royalty, this 42,500-square-foot estate is one-of-a-kind. And it's definitely more than just a big house for a Hollywood spender.

"Who would think that European royalty would bring their trunks to Dallas?" Newby told AOL Real Estate. "And who would think that a city sometimes associated with flash has the greatest refinement?" The 25-acre property -- which has a main house, a guesthouse and a pool house -- is currently owned by Tom Hicks, who once owned baseball's Texas Rangers and who Forbes magazine said was worth $1.4 billion in 2008.

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The Crespi/Hicks Estate truly is so artful. With its luxurious wood-paneled library and panoramically windowed rotundas -- just to name a few of its fabulous qualities -- this home is opulent yet classic. The property is so rich that it's worth $2 million per acre. The best part? It has rolling meadows, creeks, forests and formal gardens just eight minutes from downtown Dallas, Newby said.

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