An Upper East Side mansion reported to have been once owned by Hollywood legend and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly, has sold for $25 million, according to New York City Department of Finance records.
The home, at 51-53 East 73rd Street was purchased late last year by Chai 73, a limited liability company with an address listed as 975 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, had been on the market since February as part of bankruptcy proceedings of its owners, the Ender family.
Just two blocks from Central Park, the 12,000-foot home was constructed in the 1880s and sits between Park and Madison avenues. Air rights for the home allow it to be expanded by about 2,000 square feet.
The sale comes after years of controversy and intrigue surrounding the property.
At the top of the list is the question as to whether Kelly, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window” and “To Catch a Thief,” ever lived in the building. Multiple reports on the plans to sell the home over the last 10 years touted it as “Grace Kelly’s townhouse,” but according to the New York Post, there is no evidence she ever lived there.
Other stars rumored to have resided there include Harry Belafonte, but the Post called shenanigans on those whispers, claiming Belafonte famously complained that no landlord on the Upper East Side would rent to him in the 1950s.
Silberman’s family bought the property in 1973, and first listed it in 2011 for $33 million. In 2014, it was at the center of a scandal when its listing agent was sued for allegedly sending the then-$45 million listing to members of Tiger 21, a networking group for wealth entrepreneurs, after persuading one member of the club to provide her with the confidential contact information of all its members. That case was settled out of court.
The property was back on the market in 2015 for $42 million, after the Ender Family borrowed $15.3 million against it, and later went into a foreclosure that was halted by the bankruptcy filing.