The Herbert N. Straus House — one of New York City’s largest private homes, infamously remembered as the former residence of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — sold this week for $51 million.
The FBI raided the 28,000-square-foot French Neoclassical mansion in 2019 as part of an investigation into sex abuse allegations against Epstein, the disgraced billionaire money manager who was found dead in his New York jail cell after he was arrested that same year for trafficking underage girls.
The buyer was not identified, but the proceeds from the sale will go into a fund to provide restitution to his victims, The New York Times reported.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The townhouse was placed on the market in 2020 for $88 million, and the price tag more recently dropped to $65 million.
The dwelling was designed by Gilded Age architect Horace Trumbauer and then constructed in 1930 after being commissioned by Straus, whose parents were co-owners of the Macy’s department store chain.
The opulent mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side sits a block from Central Park and features French limestone sown with carvings, sculpture figures, ornamental iron and 15-foot oak doors, according to reports.
After the Strauses moved out, it was taken up by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York as a hospital and later by Birch Wathen School as a schoolhouse.
Billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner bought it for $13.2 million in 1989, and then Epstein scooped it up in the 1990s.
During his time in the estate, Epstein remodeled the floor plan to include custom rooms and hung eccentric artwork throughout, including a bizarre painting of former President Bill Clinton in a blue dress, according to reports.
It was most vividly profiled by Vicky Ward in a 2003 Vanity Fair article titled “The Talented Mr. Epstein.”
Calling the home a “private Xanadu” filled with menservants, Ward noted an entry hall lined with individually framed eyeballs, a marble foyer with a sculpture of a twice-life-size naked African warrior, and an office with a stuffed black poodle atop a grand piano.
Epstein told Ward that “No decorator would ever tell you to do that. But I want people to think what it means to stuff a dog.”
A more recent listing photo shows that the home has maintained its formal style with crystal chandeliers, wood-paneled walls and marble fireplaces. Stone terraces on the upper levels take in views of Central Park and the New York City skyline.
The mansion is just one piece of Epstein’s country-spanning collection of real estate. He also owned a 7,500-acre New Mexico ranch with an airplane hangar, a waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and a private Caribbean island known as Little St. James.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, heiress and Epstein confidante, was arrested last July in Bedford, New Hampshire, as part of the ongoing federal investigation into Epstein’s alleged crimes.
She remains locked up with no bail, facing a 16-count indictment that accuses her of being an accomplice to Epstein and conspiring with him to recruit young girls for sex as far back as 1994. The charges include two counts of perjury, and some charges stem from alleged crimes committed in London, according to reports.
Information provided by Tribune News Service was used to supplement this report.
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