Artist Buys Ghost Village in France

It's been years since anyone lived in the kinda-picturesque French village of Courbefy, but if you're a photographer, kinda-picturesque counts for a lot. Indeed, for American artist Ahae, it was worth around $663,000, the price the South Korean-born photographer agreed to pay for the place at an auction yesterday. The village consists of 21 buildings, including the ruins of a 13th-century castle, a chapel, an empty swimming pool, an overgrown tennis court, and more, according to the Guardian.

It was the second attempt at auctioning off Courbefy; the first didn’t attract a single bid. But this time, Ahae was bidding against two other bidders, including one Irishman hoping to use the village for a reality TV show, driving the price well above its $255,000 starting point. Ahae hasn't said what he intends to do with the village. Its last owners had hoped to turn it into a vacation retreat, but went broke in 2008 and Courbefy was repossessed. (More Courbefy stories.)