While visiting the Bran estate, the archduke Dominic of Habsburg says that he is waiting for bids for the Castle of Bran, including from the Romanian state. The current owner of the estate says that he succeeded in reviving it after getting it back from the Romanian state: "It was hard two years ago, when the Ministry of Culture removed everything that was in here. I don"t know what the state is doing with all those items. The castle was refurnished, I brought it back to life and I think we proved we are capable of managing it", said Dominic of Habsburg.
His statements come as a rebuttal to the statement made just two weeks ago by the Minister of Culture, Kelemen Hunor, who announced that the current owners of the Bran castle are incapable of managing the monument, which is why the Romanian state will try to acquire it and include among Romania"s museums.
In a chart of the most expensive homes in the world, set up in March 2010 by the British publication "The Times", the Bran Castle holds the tenth spot, being valued at 135 million dollars. The castle has 57 rooms, of which 17 bedrooms decorated with art objects. The only problem for the future owner would be, as "The Times" jokingly puts it, the 450,000 thousand annual visitors of the website. On international websites, however, the domain is ranked at USD 70 million.