“Baronial” bachelor pad-esque Manhattan loft that belonged to the late Picasso biographer Sir John Richardson for sale
Variously described as “erudite,” “witty” and the “definitive Picasso biographer,” Stowe educated art historian Sir John Richardson‘s Manhattan loft is for sale following his death in March at the grand old age of 95.
Featuring “chaotic décor,” the apartment offered is situated within an 11-storey, 17 unit cooperative designed by Samuel Sass and built in 1906. The upper floors of the building were subsequently converted to residential usage in 1996 by Joseph Pell Lombardi Architects.
Situated at 73 5th Avenue – and known as ‘The Kensington’ – the ex-New York Times real estate writer Carter Horsley lauds the limestone clad building as “very handsome” and “elegant” whilst in 2014, of Richardson’s loft itself, New York magazine’s Wendy Goodman remarked: [It] feels more like part of a vast English country house [than a New York flat]… A mash-up of exotic and classical furniture.”
Laid out presently to reflect the fact that it was the bachelor pad of a single gentleman – Richardson split up with his “mentor” and “very [like a] toad in a relatively small pool” lover, fellow art historian Douglas Cooper in 1960 – rather than a family home, the 5,400 square foot space features just 2 bedrooms rather than the 5 or 6 you’d find in other apartments in the building. It has 30 oversized windows, “soaring ceiling heights,” dark wooden floors and mahogany doorways crowned with neoclassical pediments.
London born Richardson moved into the “raw space” that had previously been a dance studio in 1995 and in 2014 remarked of it: “This is my little world… I used to go out like crazy. I don’t go out very much anymore.” He plainly lived life to the full there and was awarded a KBE in the 2012 New Year Honours for his services to art.
Agents Compass seek £5.6 million ($7.2 million, €6.5 million or درهم26.4 million) for the loft and sum it up as a place “where some of the most famous artists, writers, and society figures of the late 20th and early 21st century lived, laughed and loved.”
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