Billionaire art dealer Guy Wildenstein, accused of scamming the French government out of more than $600 million in taxes, is looking to quietly sell his double-wide Sutton Place mansion for $48.5 million, sources told The Real Deal.
The 70-year-old heir to the Wildenstein & Co. art empire bought the 9,250-square-foot, two-townhouse combination at 7 Sutton Square back in 2008 for $32.5 million, property records show.
The five-bedroom home features six fireplaces, a double-width master suite and a triple-story mezzanine.
There are river views from literally every window and a dramatic open central staircase, capped with an enormous glass rotunda,” read an old listing for the home.
But in January, Wildenstein went on trial in France with two family members and their financial advisers, accused of tax fraud and money laundering in order to conceal a fortune from family patriarch Daniel Wildenstein, whom Vanity Fair in the late 1990s described as “the richest and most powerful art dealer on earth.”
Wildenstein reportedly faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Meanwhile, he’s looking to quietly unload his Upper East Side mansion. Douglas Elliman brokers Kym Spiegel and George Vanderploeg[TRData] have signed an exclusive to market the whisper listing, sources told TRD.
When reached for comment, Spiegel referred questions to Vanderploeg, who could not be immediately reached.
The French case has reportedly drawn lots of attention in no small part due to the glitzy nature of the Wildenstein family fortune, which includes one of the biggest private French castles, a 6,000-acre ranch in Kenya and another storied property on the Upper East Side.
The Wildenstein family also owns the 20,500 square-foot townhouse at 19 East 64th Street, which the nation of Qatar had under contract to buy for $90 million two years ago, but then chose to walk away, as TRD previously reported.