The Tussaud's group was bought by the private investment fund Charterhouse Development Capital, for �352m ($600m).

Tussaud's most famous asset is Madame Tussaud's, a museum of wax models of world famous - or notorious - personalities, which is one of London's biggest tourist attractions.

The museum attracted 2.79m investors last year, more than the Tower of London.

A wax work museum in Amsterdam and two amusement parks in England, Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures, are part of the deal.

Pearson has tried to sell the leisure group for some time, in a drive to focus on its media business.

The company's media interest range from the Financial Times daily newspaper and a stake in The Economist to Penguin books and television soap operas like Baywatch.

Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson, said in a statement: "We've always said that someone would have to pay us a good price and provide Tussauds with a good home to convince us that a sale was worthwhile. Charterhouse has done both."

The investment fund's chief executive, Gordon Bonnyman, returned the compliment, calling Tussaud's an "outstanding investment opportunity."

The deal will help Pearson to finance its planned buy of the US publishing house Simon & Schuster for $4.6bn.

This agreement has been hit by recent market rumours. Part of the acquisition deal was a spin-off of Simon & Schuster's reference, business and professional units.

They were to be sold on for $1bn to US based group Hicks, Muse. However, market watchers allege that the buyout specialists have trouble raising the money because of the general turmoil on the world's financial markets.