Italy set to save Budelli paradise island off Sardinia from foreign ownership Budelli fell into foreign hands earlier this year when it was sold at auction to a New Zealand businessman for £2.5 million At the time, the Italian state could not raise the funds needed to buy it from its private owners in Milan Following media campaign, state is set to save the island, on which the film Red Desert was filmed, for the Italian people Its unique pink coral sands have made it the pearl of the Italian coastline. But the paradise island of Budelli, off Sardinia, fell into foreign hands earlier this year when it was sold at auction to a New Zealand businessman for £2.5 million. At the time the cash-stricken Italian state could not raise the funding needed to buy it from its private owners in Milan. But, following an intense media campaign, they are set to save the heritage for the Italian people. Budelli fell into foreign hands this year when it was sold to a New Zealand businessman for £2.5 million The government has first refusal to buy back the island, which will expire on January 8, and will allocate £2.6 million towards it, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. And the Senate Budget Committee has passed an amendment allowing the state to reclaim the island, which is in a protected area ten miles off the coast of Sardinia. Budelli first found fame as the sensational backdrop for the 1964 Italian film Red Desert starring celebrated British actor Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in two Harry Potter films. After its Milan-based owners went bankrupt, it was auctioned off to the highest bidder for £2.4million. The buyer, Michael Harte, chief information officer for Australia's Commonwealth Bank, said he would preserve it as a natural wilderness. But the Italians were up in arms at the thought of the jewel of the Maddalena archipelago falling into foreign hands. Swathes of the northern coast of Sardinia has already been bought up by Qataris. Former environment minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, who has collected a petition containing 85,000 signatures, in favour of the buy back, claimed victory saying: "It's a first win." Budelli first found fame as the sensational backdrop for the 1964 Italian film Red Desert The island is covered with rich Mediterranean vegetation and home to a variety of plants and wildlife The island is covered with rich Mediterranean vegetation and home to a variety of plants and wildlife. It is completely private - landing or dropping anchor within a hundred metres of its unique sands is forbidden, keeping paparazzi at bay. The only existing buildings are the caretaker's house, a post-war military structure, the ruins of a cabin and a dry stone wall along the beach. The Spiaggia Rosa ("Pink Beach"), on the south-eastern side of the island, owes its distinctive colour to microscopic fragments of corals and shells. The island is one of a group of three uninhabited islands originally populated in the 13th century by monastic hermits, who are thought to have used a network of underground tunnels to move between them.