Donald Bryant Jr. — an art collector and founder of the boutique Napa Valley winery Bryant Family Vineyard — sold his duplex co-op home at 19 East 72nd Street for $12.2 million, according to public records filed today. He purchased the spread in 2006 for $10 million, so that he could move to New York from St. Louis after his youngest child graduated from high school the following year, according to previous reports.
“I’ve always loved New York,” Bryant told the New York Times at the time of his purchase. “It’s the greatest city in the world. Why wouldn’t anybody want to live there?”
The four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom home hit the market for $14.5 million last October, StreetEasy shows. It underwent a price chop in March to $12.98 million where it stayed until entering contract in April, according to the site.
Arthur and Catherine Williams are listed as the buyers of the duplex. They could not immediately be further identified. A message seeking to get in touch with Bryant for comment on the sale was not immediately returned.
Cathy Franklin and Alexis Bodenheimer of Brown Harris Stevens had the listing. A spokesperson for the brokerage did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the deal.
Bryant tapped architect John Beyer of Beyer Blinder Belle, the firm known for its renovation of Grand Central, to gut renovate the 4,000-square-foot space to display art, according to previous reports. Work included the lowering of some ceilings several inches to install air conditioning and museum-style track lighting, the building of a wall to show large works, and painting the walls a light grey so as to not interfere with his Willem de Kooning oils, a Picasso nude and a drip painting by Jackson Pollock.
The work cost $4 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which Bryant said was irrelevant.
“It’s like people asking me how many pieces of art I have,” he told the paper. “It’s the quality” that matters.
The apartment includes 10-foot ceilings and, no surprise, an 800-bottle wine cellar that’s climate-controlled.
Previous reports peg Bryant as a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, though he does not currently appear in the museum’s roster of trustees. Several calls to MoMA were not answered.
His vineyard’s cabernet sauvignon is a cult wine, according to the New York Times. It’s made in small quantities and typically sells for hundreds of dollars per bottle.
