The Cassini House — an eight-story Gilded Age mansion on the Upper East Side that once housed the atelier of Jackie Kennedy’s favorite fashion designer, Oleg Cassini, in its atrium — has fetched another massive $5 million.
It is now asking $49.5 million — down from the $65 million it asked for just four months ago. It last asked for $54.5 million last month, down from its asking price of $58.5 million in August.
The late Cassini, the grandson of a Russian-Italian count and the last tsarist ambassador to China before the Russian Revolution, was known as a playboy. He was once engaged to Grace Kelly, whom he described as a “tall girl,” and dated women including Marilyn Monroe, whom he described as a “little polo pony,” according to a Vanity Fair article of 2010.
The Beaux-Arts beauty, at 15 E. 63rd St., was designed by noted architect John H. Duncan.
The architect was famous for creating Grant’s Tomb – the massive domed mausoleum in Morningside Heights. It is the final resting place for General Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th US president elected after he led the fight against the Confederacy to win the Civil War, and his wife, Julia.
The East 63rd Street mansion was also the site of her 30-year civil war.
In 1984, Marianne Nestor Cassini – whose secret marriage to Oleg Cassini from 1971 until his death in 2006, aged 92, was only revealed after Oleg died – and her sister, Peggy Nestor, bought residence for an unknown amount. At the time, it was carved into at least seven rental units. The sisters planned to turn it into a single-family residence, but they had a rent-stabilized residence.
Famed interior designer Thomas Britt had moved into a massive 3,000-square-foot triplex in the building in 1971, when he was paying just $700 a month — and he refused to leave.
By 2017, Britt was paying $3,025 a month. At the time, a similar market-rate unit would have fetched at least $15,000 a month. The sisters and Britt were still going through housing court when, in 2018, Britt called it quits and moved out — after the sisters accused her of living mostly in the Hamptons, according to The Post.
A year later, in 2019, a mortgage lender filed a foreclosure lawsuit. But Nestor filed for bankruptcy the day before the planned sale.
At the time, Cassini’s widow was in another fight and was even jailed twice for refusing to follow court orders in a torturous legal battle over Oleg’s $55 million estate. According to documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by a public administrator, Marianne was accused of “misappropriation, misconduct and self-serving abuse” and delaying the settlement of the estate for as long as Oleg’s daughters from legendary actress Gene Tierney – Christina and Daria – both died without receiving their rightful share of his estate.
They passed away penniless, according to reports. Thanks to Christina’s challenge, Marianne was removed from her role as administrator of the estate – and her four children continued to fight for their inheritance.
Oleg Cassini’s nephew, Alexandre Belmont — Christina’s son — also successfully sued to force the sale of another townhouse Oleg owned and where Marianne lived in Gramercy Park. That townhouse, at 135 E. 19th St., eventually sold at auction for $5 million in 2022. The following year, it was back on the market for $13.95 million. The price was lowered to $11.95 million last year. The estate also includes an Oyster Bay property at 313 McCouns Lane — subject to Marianne’s eviction and a court-ordered sale — and another property in Norwalk, Conn., on Point Road.
By 2022, Marianne Cassini had also filed her $350 million lawsuit against Nassau County officials, whom she accused of trying to rob the $55 million estate through “corrupt” and “illegal” actions, according to The Post reports.
While the court cases remain unresolved, the East 63rd Street residence went on the market last summer. Not many Gilded Age mansions remain as well-preserved as that gem, as many were demolished in the 1920s. This is a “splendid survivor, one of the few remaining and most architecturally intact from its heyday splendor.” gilded on the Upper East Side,” the listing notes.
The limestone house, just off Central Park between Fifth and Madison streets, was built 123 years ago for financier and philanthropist Elias Asiel. It still boasts original details, including a marble staircase, 14 fireplaces, floral crowns, arched French windows, a circular dining room, wood paneling, coffered ceiling coffers, white marble and fish floor.
Measuring 25 feet wide, the 18,000-square-foot residence comes with seven bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, four half bathrooms, and an elevator. There is also a wood-paneled library, a gym, a conservatory and three terraces along with a sitting room with double-height ceilings and a copper roof. The eight-story property includes two underground levels.
“It is one of the most beautiful homes in New York, with the highest quality of craftsmanship, materials, imagination and taste,” said listing broker Louise Beit of Sotheby’s International Realty. “It is truly a masterpiece by Duncan, one of the finest architects at the turn of the century. Boiserie, exquisite ceiling drawings and sculptures, bold formations along the edge of the ceiling – in some places there are three levels of formations that are quite extraordinary and so safe.
Rooms, she added, “are complete experiences, not just living spaces.
Details also include 17-foot-high ceilings in the “drawing room” floor, which includes the library and seating with a musician’s gallery overlooking it. There is also an oval wood paneled dining room. The offering also features “one of the most architecturally significant limestone facades, adorned with sculptural crowns above the windows,” along with floor-to-ceiling windows and views of Central Park.
The two underground levels are original. The first — “Under Level 1” — may have been the original kitchen with a great room and fireplace and 11-foot-high vaulted ceilings with ceramic tiles, Beit said — while “Under Level 2” is currently an office and could converted into a pool.
The sale is subject to court approval, the listing states.
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