Real Estate

You Have to See The Chevron Bathroom in This Art Biographer’s $7.2M NYC Apartment

publishedOct 16, 2019
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If you’re looking to dip your brush in the intersection of art and history, look no further than the home of thelate Sir John Richardson, world-renowned biographer and art historian. It’s no surprise that the man famously known for serving as Pablo Picasso’s biographer thrived in a maximalist haven where prominent creatives and society figures of the 20th and 21st centuries once gathered. Built in 1907 and located in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan, this home is a work of art in itself.

I imagine walking through this house would be like walking through those chic boutique stores where everything is more than $300 and you wonder how the owners make rent. You want to touch everything even though you’re afraid to (since you can’t even afford the bag), but also, for some reason, it feels like home? We all deserve to unleash our inner fancy person!

Let’s start with the library, which features floor-to-ceiling white bookshelves with mounted metal light fixtures that illuminate the many books about Cubism, Pointillism, and other -isms I can’t remember from my undergraduate art history class. Enter the massive living space which, I mean, my goodness: Let’s pause the tour for a second just to discuss that moss/macrame combo ottoman. Seeing it for the first time is, for me, an experience akin to one like in those videos when babies get glasses and can finally see their mothers clearly. It’s life-changing and we are probably both crying!

I’m desperate to eat in Sir Richardson’s dining room, with its classic crown molding and elegant fireplace. Even my standard late-night fix of boxed macaroni and cheese mixed with mustard (don’t you dare @ me) can be sophisticated in this dining room! Onto the teal office, with dark wooden floors that I imagine creak a little in areallysatisfying way. There are so many priceless artifacts adorning the walls of the loft, you’ll be shocked to uncover more than 30 oversized windows gracing the seventh floor home.

The bathroom’s design blasts into infinity, which honestly kind of terrifies me, but I have the good sense to know this water closet is a tiled masterpiece. Also, the mandarin orange-hued dressing room strangely resembles the shade of my macaroni and mustard delights (again, don’t @ me).Is this camp?

With four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and countless possibilities, this $7.2M loft is the priciest and most worthwhile blank canvas you could own. (If that’s out of your price range, though, you can always pick up a copy of Richardson’s “A Life of Picasso” to imbue your life with some of his signature style. Same thing, right?)

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