A visit to the E-1027 villa on the French Riviera feels like a chance to walk into a real-life miracle. Since its construction almost a century ago under the direction of the celebrated Irish designer Eileen Gray for her then partner, architect Jean Badovici, the landmark modernist house had in turn become the target of an artistic hijacking by his colleague Le Corbusier; a supply of prized furniture for later owners in need of cash from auction rooms, or for burglars; a sordid crime scene when its last occupier was murdered under its roof in 1996; and, in subsequent years,…

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