A 10,683-square-foot renovated Beaux Arts mansion at 19 East 82nd Street hit the market today for $34.8 million, after its owner, the popular Adelson Galleries, announced on its website that it will be relocating to a different Upper East Side space, “better suited for private dealing and continued scholarship.”
The gallery’s new location was not immediately known although a source said the new building may have a connection to Christie’s auction house, with which the Adelson Galleries is currently collaborating on a program of contemporary realist paintings.
The 25-foot-wide mansion between Fifth and Madison avenues, with a commercial zoning overlay, was fully restored in 2006 and has a neo-Renaissance facade of rusticated limestone and Roman brick. It was built in 1898 for cigar-manufacturing magnate Edward A. Kerbs in an era when the Upper East Side’s Gold Coast first became known as the address of choice for America’s wealthiest families, according to the listing.
The ground floor of the five-bedroom, seven-bathroom property is currently being used to display museum-quality art from the 19th and 20th centuries, though viewings were by appointment only beginning Dec. 5, according to the gallery’s website. The second-floor is used as a dining room, while the third and fourth floors are used as a library and a master-suite penthouse respectively.
“It’s an investment strategy,” said Nicholas Judson, a director at Judson Realty, who listed the property along with colleagues Stuart Ellman and Helene Fagan, both executive directors, of the sale. “They’re turning a profit and moving to an alternative space, coordinating with Christie’s.”
Judson, who declined give any further information of Adelson’s new space, added that the East 82nd Street property would be delivered vacant. Christie’s was not immediately available for comment.
Adelson purchased the property through a corporate shell company in 2006, for $25 million, according to public records. A spokesperson for the gallery was not immediately available to comment.