Hong Kong - The Hong Kong home where legend Bruce Lee spent his final years was Thursday off the market as its wealthy owner considered plans to turn it into a museum to the kung fu legend. The two-storey house in the city's exclusive Kowloon Tong residential district, was due to be sold by its owner to raise money for earthquake relief in China.
Bids of more than 13 million US dollars were received for the 530-square-metre residence in Cumberland Street before entrepreneur Yu Panglin decided to take it off the market.
The house, most recently used as a short-stay "love hotel", may now be turned into a museum to Lee in response to a long campaign by fans of the star.
"I will consider the views of the community and different parties. I may consider donating the property if the majority thinks we should preserve it," Yu was quoted as saying by Thursday's South China Morning Post.
He added: "Money is not my major concern. I just want to contribute to charity."
The development was hailed as "fantastic news" by Bruce Lee fan club officials in Hong Kong who have campaigned for years for a permanent memorial to the star in his home city.
The government's Tourism Commission said it was already looking at turning the house into a museum and had been studying overseas examples such as the Beatles Story in Liverpool and Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Tennessee.
Lee - star of films such as Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon - lived with his wife, Linda Lee-Cadwell, in the house, which he affectionately named the Crane's Nest, in the years leading to his death in 1973.
He died mysteriously at the age of 32 at the peak of his stardom at the home of an actress friend in another part of Kowloon Tong.
Although there is a statue to Lee in Hong Kong, officials in the former British colony have been reluctant to commemorate the city's most famous star, apparently wary of his hell-raising reputation.
