Disgraced art dealer’s old townhouse trades for $13M

An Upper East Side townhouse that was once home to Lawrence Salander — the art world’s Bernie Madoff — has traded hands for $13.3 million.

The house, at 63 East 82nd Street, was sold by Benedict Aitkenhead, an executive at KBS Capital, and his wife, Ifeoma Okoronkwo, a pain doctor, who bought the house in 2010. Records show the buyer was GSH Holly LLC, and the deed was signed by Benjamin Braka of Aetna Realty.

The power couple originally listed the house for $23.75 million in 2016. Most recently, it was asking $15.4 million, or $1,704 per foot. Ultimately, they took a $650,000 loss on the house — which they bought for $13.95 million in 2010, after Salander was accused of defrauding customers of his well-known gallery.

The head of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries paid $4.75 million for the house in 2004. But in 2007, several of the art dealer’s customers, including tennis star John McEnroe, accused him of looting their collections. He was sentenced to six to 18 years in prison in 2010.

Built in 1899, the six-story property is 20 feet wide with a total of 9,000 square feet of space (plus a cellar with a temperature-controlled wine room). It has nine wood-burning fireplaces, six bedrooms, multiple butler kitchens, an elevator and a 35-foot landscaped garden.

Leslie J. Garfield’s Jed Garfield, Caylyn Sullivan and Kristina McNerney had a co-exclusive with Halstead Property’s Louise Phillips Forbes, Samantha Kirson and Alicia Cacchione.