Abbey bought to be altruism retreat put on sale for £15m
A mansion pitched as the place for the world’s leading scientists and philosophers to figure out how effective altruism and artificial intelligence could make the world a better place has been put up for sale for £15m.
The Effective Ventures Foundation (EVF), which defines effective altruism as “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible”, decided to spend £14.9m on buying Wytham Abbey, a 15th-century Grade-I listed manor house near Oxford.
The 27-bedroom house, which has over the years been visited by Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell and Queen Victoria, was transformed into a retreat for believers in the movement, including the now-jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and the Estonian billionaire Jaan Tallinn, who made a fortune investing early in Skype.
Two years after it bought the mansion, nicknamed “Effective Altruism Castle”, the EVF has put it on the market for £15m. The abbey was bought with grants from Open Philanthropy, the funding organisation co-founded by Moskovitz.
The sale comes soon after the EVF’s parent group, Effective Ventures, announced it had paid nearly $27m (£21.5m) to the creditors of FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange founded and run by Bankman-Fried. The latter was jailed in March for 25 years over his role in the fraudulent collapse of the company.
Zachary Robinson, the chief executive of Effective Ventures US, said the US and UK branches had reached deals with the FTX estate. “As part of these settlements, EV US and EV UK have between them paid the estate $26.8m, an amount equal to 100% of the funds the entities received from FTX and the FTX Foundation in 2022,” he said. “We strongly condemn fraud and the actions underlying Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction.”
The mansion, marketed by Savills, sits in 9.3 hectares (23 acres) of gardens and park near Oxford. The agent said: “Whether continuing as a residential events venue or as a family residence, it offers great flexibility.”
A spokesperson for Effective Ventures said: “EV agreed the abbey’s major donors at the time of the original purchase that they could recommend that EV sell the property if they believed there were higherimpact uses of the asset. They made that recommendation this year.” They said EV would use the proceeds “to support high-impact charities”.