Oleg Cassini’s pristine Gilded Age NYC mansion fetches $34.5M
It’s a trendy residence — however the backstory behind its dramatic sale is something however fashionable.
The Home of Cassini — a Gilded Age mansion owned by designer Oleg Cassini’s widow and her sister — has lastly offered for $34.5 million in a judge-approved chapter sale, in line with metropolis information filed this week. Cassini, finest often called First Woman Jackie Kennedy’s favourite designer for her signature fits and pillbox hats in the course of the Camelot period, was additionally linked to a number of the world’s most stunning ladies — from ex-fiancée Grace Kelly to Marilyn Monroe.
The client, as listed within the information, is shielded by an nameless shell company.
The limestone mansion at 15 E. 63rd St. was first asking $65 million in 2024, and the topic of an epic court docket battle. It offered over the objections of the sellers: Cassini’s widow, Marianne Nestor, a former mannequin who secretly married the dapper designer in 1971, and his sister-in-law, Peggy Nestor.
Each ladies fought the sale for years — refusing to let brokers, photographers, attorneys and others into the house earlier than they have been forcibly, and, they are saying, “wrongly,” evicted two years in the past, in line with Enterprise Insider. The outlet reported that there was greater than “$30 million owed in foreclosed mortgages and different liens towards the property.”
The itemizing dealer, Sami Hassoumi of Brown Harris Stevens, couldn’t be reached for remark.
The sisters purchased the 25-foot-wide, 18,000-square-foot mansion in 1984 for an unknown value.
Again then, it had been carved up into seven rental models. The sisters wished to return the constructing to its unique single-family mansion standing. However there was a hire stabilized hold-out: inside designer Thomas Britt, who had moved into an enormous 3,000-square-foot triplex within the constructing in 1971, paying $700 a month. That sum had jumped to $3,025 a month in 2017 — nonetheless far beneath market worth.
The house options seven bedrooms, eight full baths, 4 powder rooms, 14 fireplaces and an elevator. Design particulars embody elaborate crown moldings, millwork, herringbone and white marble flooring, wooden paneling and sumptuous hand carved particulars. There’s additionally a marble staircase, floral garlands, arched French home windows, three terraces — and Central Park views.
It’s straightforward to get misplaced within the spacious, outdated world-style rooms, which embody a wood-paneled library, a health club, a conservatory, a round eating room and a sitting room with double-height ceilings. The house is topped by a copper mansard roof. Two of the eight tales are beneath floor.
Cassini stored his atelier there till his demise in 2006 at age 92. Whereas the sisters later returned to the house to take away some possessions, many remained.
Invoice Roland, co-owner of Roland Public sale, informed Gimme Shelter solely that he bought “the entire treasure trove of things” from chapter court docket, including that his staff had a mere 12 days to scrub out the home. He’s now auctioning what stays in three separate auctions. The primary was held on March 28. The second will probably be held on April 11 and the third on Could 2.
“I’m nonetheless going by means of the packing containers,” Roland stated.
“It’s no small endeavor. His life’s achievements are there — awards, pictures with Grace Kelly, a framed invitation to [JFK’s] inauguration,” Roland stated, including that he may even be auctioning Cassini’s sketchbooks and fragrance bottles from his perfume enterprise, in addition to “stunning paperweights, frames and his library.”
The gathering additionally consists of non-public correspondence between Cassini and other people together with Kelly and Kennedy, in addition to items from his private artwork assortment.
“I’ve barely scratched the floor,” Roland stated, including that he believes he has not heard the final from Marianne Nestor: “I’m not searching for a battle with that girl, however I do know I’m going to get one.”
Marianne Nestor owes greater than $133 million in civil judgments, in line with a 2024 court docket submitting cited by Enterprise Insider — a declare that, the outlet reported, Nestor denies. She was additionally jailed at the very least as soon as for six weeks for refusing to adjust to court docket orders. Individually, she fought Cassini’s 4 youngsters over his $55 million property, which included different property.
By 2022, Marianne Cassini filed a $350 million lawsuit towards Nassau County officers whom she accused of making an attempt to loot the property by means of “corrupt” and “unlawful” actions, in line with The Submit’s studies.
The next yr, in 2023, Peggy Nestor filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety. Subsequent, in 2024, the sisters listed the house for $65 million and the worth has been dropping ever since.
Not many Gilded Age mansions have survived in such pristine circumstances. This one was in-built 1901 for financier and philanthropist Elias Asiel — and options one of many metropolis’s most architecturally vital limestone facades, with sculptural garlands over the home windows.
