LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - The famed Los Angeles Playboy mansion belonging to Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, has been sold for US$100 million (S$134 million), and Hefner, 90, will live in the mansion for the rest of his life.

The property was bought by Daren Metropoulos for half of the US$200 million it was initially listed for earlier this year.

Metropoulos said Hefner's 1927 Gothic Tudor-style mansion, which has an area of 20,000 sq ft (1,858 sq m), had a "rich and storied legacy" and is a "masterpiece in design".

Hefner and Playboy did not comment on the sale.

The property, which was purchased by Playboy in 1971 for a reported US$1.1 million, sits amid 2ha in Holmby Hills, west of Los Angeles, and includes 29 rooms, a tennis court and a free-form swimming pool - and has a zoo licence.

It is home to the famous Playboy grotto, which over the years served as the setting for some of Hefner's most lavish, hedonistic parties.