World's Richest Man Buys Duke-Semans Mansion for $44 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Jul 28th 2010 at 7:01PM

Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, who beat out Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to capture the title of World's Richest Man earlier this year with an astonishing net worth of $53.5 billion, has purchased the stunning Duke-Semans Mansion in New York for a cool $44 million. As we reported back in January, cab driver-turned-fertilizer king Tamir Sapir had listed the palatial townhouse, said to be the only private mansion left on Fifth Avenue, for $50 million. According to the Wall St. Journal, Slim cut the deal to snag it for $6 million less with Sapir directly. Sapir bought the historic seven-story Beaux Arts mansion located across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art from relatives of Doris Duke for $40 million in 2006. The 20,000-square-foot mansion, built in 1901, currently has a doctor's office in the basement, a five-story main residence, a penthouse duplex on top, 12 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and 11 wood-burning fireplaces.

Gallery: Duke Semans Mansion

Tags: billionaire, Carlos Slim, celebrity real estate, Doris Duke, Duke Semans Mansion, Duke-Semans Mansion, Fifth Avenue, mansion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mexico, New York, New York City, real estate, Tamir Sapir, worlds richest man

Filed under: Estates, Wealth

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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)

nycfl09 Aug 1st 2010 8:02PM

Now there is a mexican in the US doing whatever he feels like, What? he has money so is welcome? must be the american way....

Winston C Aug 2nd 2010 10:04AM

I don't understand people who write;

a) "This is ugly"

b) "It looks like something a Mexican would buy"

c) "Why would you live here? Why live in New York, it's dirty..yayaya"

Answers:

a) How is this ugly? It might be slightly 'Disney Main Street' in comparison with neighbouring buildings but it's not offensive to an objective eye. It has attractive decoration and haberdashing which is something missing from most residences in the city, and for a building of such size still looks like a single residence rather than a Connecticut Ramada Inn.

b) Funny, this was a house which an American built at the height of the Gilded Age. Far from being a Mexican 'casita' I imagine this residence has entertained the cream of American society for 100 years.

c) Firstly it's on damn FIFTH AVENUE, which in my opinion is the BEST street in the entire city of Manhattan. A 12 bedroom house on a clean, genteel, well-kept and secure street with views of the park, trees etc...that would be sufficient for most people.
Secondly, does your local hick town near to your estate offer the kind of access to cuisine, culture, theatre, nightlife and business space that New York offers? Doubt it.
Finally, the guy has multi-billions. This isn't the only residence in which he hangs his hat. If the 'noise' and 'dirt' of daily-cleaned Fifth Avenue gets to Carlos, I imagine he'll jump in the Gulfstream V (or more likely, custom Boeing) and make his way to an enormous country pile with spectacular grounds and views. For a New York 'pied a terre', somewhere to stay when his board meets or when he decides he wants to secure financing for an acquisition through meeting honchos on Wall Street, the Duke-Semans mansion ain't bad.