Millionaire arrested over fire at his listed mansion

Service. Dorset Police announced the arrest on Wednesday of a 68-year-old Beaminster man and two days later said the suspect had been released “under investigation”. Bail conditions are not thought to have been imposed.

The force has refused to confirm the identity of the man but a spokesman for Austrian-born financier Treichl, 68, who has owned the property since 2001, told “Mr Treichl is helping police with their inquiries. He wants to resolve this as much as anyone. He and his family are devastated at the loss of the house.”

Treichl’s father, Heinrich Treichl, whose mother was a baroness, was a former general manager of the now defunct Austrian bank Creditanstalt.

Michael Treichl, who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, is a founding partner of London-based hedge fund Audley Capital Advisors.

Before that, he co-founded Bessemer Vogel & Treichl, the European arm of a £3.9 billion private equity fund.

Near-neighbour Derek Horton, who works on the Parnham estate, told

that an extensive investigation had been carried out following the blaze. He said: “Everyone Michael Treichl, 68, and his wife Emma bought the lavish Elizabethan property, right, in 2001. It caught fire in the early hours of April 15 who works here has been questioned by the police and the fire brigade.”

Mr Treichl and his wife Emma, 54, purchased the property in 2001 from furniture designer John Makepeace, and lived there with their four children. Their extensive remodelling of the building was the subject of a 2009 article in in which Mrs Treichl said: “The children enjoy the atmosphere of suits of armour and endless games of hide and seek, and a house needs to be lived in for it to feel like a home and not a museum.”

The property’s halls and reception rooms played host to a menagerie of game trophies collected by Mr Treichl. One magazine reported that a polar bear and a lioness were among the taxidermied inhabitants. The driveway featured a life-sized statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth.

Much of the current design of the building is the work of Regency architect John Nash, including the distinctive winding staircases and stone mullioned windows. Nash also worked on the 19th-century enlargement of Buckingham Palace.

Mr Treichl’s office could not be reached for comment yesterday.