EXCLUSIVE: Kanye West’s Former Hollywood Hills Home Where He Had Sistine Chapel-Style Mural of Himself Painted on Ceiling Lists for $4 Million
Rapper Kanye West is making quite the impact on the California housing market—where three of his former residences are currently on the market, with one very notable Hidden Hills property recently listing for $3.99 million.
Days after one of West’s most infamous properties—his gutted beach house in Malibu—was relisted for $34.9 million, another home on which the musician made a serious mark has now been put up for sale, with both dwellings listed by the same agent: celebrity real estate broker Jason Oppenheim and his eponymous Oppenheim Group.
The most-recently listed home, which is located in the same neighborhood where West’s former spouse, Kim Kardashian, still lives, will perhaps be familiar to some of his most dedicated fans.
Owned by the rapper from 2003 until 2017, when he sold it for $2.95 million, the property was the site of a much talked-about Sistine Chapel-style mural that West had painted of himself on the dining room ceiling.
Dubbed “A Life Restored,” the mural by Ernie Barnes depicts a lifeless body being carried by an angel, with a winged and shirtless likeness of West hovering above. Angels and regular folks surround them, giving praise.
It’s reported that the painting celebrated West’s “miraculous recovery” from a near-fatal car crash in 2002.
Oppenheim recalls being a guest in the four-bedroom, four-bathroom Hollywood Hills home while West was in residence, and remembers the remarkable—and sometimes bizarre—stamps that West put on the 4,214-square-foot home to make it his own—including the mural, which has since been removed.
However, another of West’s more flamboyant additions remains: the distinctive fish tank in the primary bath that serves as a wall divider between the shower and the tub.
Listing photos show that there are currently no fish in the tank, but when Oppenheim visited the home, he remembers the aquatic spectacle was fully stocked.
Another spectacular feature that West added and remains pretty much as Oppenheim remembers it is the sleek kitchen that West remodeled to his own very exacting specifications.
Oppenheim relates that West utilized part of the garage to expand the kitchen so that residents, whether preparing meals or dining at the modern sculptural island bar, could have a full view of the Los Angeles basin and the ocean beyond.
Those spectacular vistas are among the property’s greatest selling points, according to Oppenheim.
“The views are insane!” he says. “They extend to downtown and across Century City to the ocean. These are some of the best views in all of LA.”
The home has had two owners since West presided over it.
Realtor.com® records indicate that he paid $1.75 million for it in 2003, renovated it to his exacting tastes, then sold it in 2017, after he’d been married to Kardashian for three years.
The current owners purchased it in 2022 for $3.36 million and added some chic luxury amenities, including an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue, an in-ground spa, a sauna, an outdoor shower, and a dramatic fire pit on the terrace, all surrounded by comfortable built-in seating that takes full advantage of those glorious views.
Today, the fully gated home that cascades down the hillside is the picture of discretion from the street. Its somewhat stark exterior belies the elegance of the interior, which is just the way many celebrities like it.
The main floor is entered by an impressive pivot door made mostly of frosted glass. It opens to a great room with soaring ceilings, Venetion plaster walls, hardwood floors, and the balconies that highlight each of its four levels.
The three levels beneath the main floor host the primary suite with it’s travertine tile and fish tank featured bath, in addition to an oversized walk-in closet.
There are also two additional en suite guest bedrooms with private balconies, and another flex space that can be used as a screening room, an office, or a fourth bedroom.
Located not far from Laurel Canyon, overlooking Hollywood Boulevard and the Sunset Strip, the home is conveniently close to both movie and music studios as well as haute gathering spots including the Chateau Marmont and The Soho House.
Oppenheim says the next owners will likely be a young couple, or single with exceptional taste.
As for West’s former abode in Malibu, the celebrity broker previously revealed to Realtor.com that the dwelling will likely have undergone a dramatic transformation by the time a new buyer emerges—explaining that the restoration of the property, which was put on pause when the dwelling went into escrow earlier this year, will be ramping back up again.
Oppenheim adds that the dwelling has had “decent interest” in the weeks since it reappeared on the market—with the celebrity real estate agent noting that the home has a great deal of intrigue beyond its beleaguered history.
Chief among its most alluring qualities is its impressive “architectural pedigree,” he notes—combined with the fact that it is believed to be the only Ando-designed home actually “on the water.”
The third of West’s former homes that are currently on the market is also located in Hidden Hills; however, all that remains of the rapper’s legacy there is the land.
In August, it was revealed that the musician’s dwelling had been torn down to make way for a new megamansion that is now on the market for a staggering $17 million.
It stands in stark contrast to the somewhat run-down property that previously occupied the 1-acre plot, which was sold by West for $4.3 million in 2023, just a few months after he married his second wife, Bianca Censori.
The six-bedroom home is described in its listing as an “architectural reverie” that draws “respectful inspiration from the Chumash people,” a Native American tribe that once occupied the land.
“The residence is a spiritual and architectural homage to [the Chumash people’s] cosmology—three interconnected worlds: the sky, the earth, and the underworld,” the listing notes. “Unlike Western belief systems, the Chumash held that humans could, with great effort, traverse these realms.”
