The Hotel des Artistes apartment that was once part of the late, legendary pop/impressionist artist is now back on the market for $4.49 million.
The two-bedroom duplex is on the 15th and 16th floors of 1 W. 67th St., and once housed his archives, according to the LeRoy Neiman Foundation.
Gimme once interviewed Neiman, a dapper, bon vivant with a giant handlebar moustache, inside the home, which was filled with his art, on display and filed away in cabinets that he opened up to us — a mix of pop art, retro, impressionistic brushwork and vibrant color that was very much of his time.
Neiman told us he bought two apartments — one for himself and his wife and the other for his brother — site unseen for $100,000 for both apartments back in 1962.
“I loved the stables nearby in Central Park,” he said. (Neiman, who died in 2012, at age 91, ended up with six units in the building; he showed us one that mysteriously connected to another through a closet, like out of the pages of a Narnia book by C.S. Lewis.)
Neiman’s estate sold this apartment, 914, to a mystery buyer through a trust in 2015 for $2.92 million, according to property records.
Neiman’s prolific prints and work — which often chronicled public life and “leisure activities” like gambling, boxing and other sports — were published in magazines like Playboy; Hugh Hefner was a pal. His work is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Neiman’s obituary in The New York Times states that “in popularity, Mr. Neiman rivaled American favorites like Norman Rockwell.”
The Upper West Side remained an inspiration for his work, including a popular painting of Tavern on the Green. He also endowed what was to become the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
The renovated duplex now features a chef’s kitchen and white oak floors. But it still boasts original details like a woodburning fireplace with a carved oak mantel, a decorative plaster ceiling and a stained-glass foyer window.
“When the southern light floods into the great room and hits the decorative plaster ceilings, you can imagine it being the perfect artist’s light,” said Warburg Realty broker Allison Chiaramonte, who shares the listing with Warburg’s Tania Isacoff Friedland.
The landmarked, neo-Gothic building was developed in 1917 as an artist’s cooperative. Other famed residents over the years have included New York City Mayor John Lindsay, Isadora Duncan, Norman Rockwell, Rudolph Valentino and Noël Coward.
Amenities include a pool, squash court, gym, a common landscaped roof terrace and discounted dining/room service from top Italian restaurant, Leopard at des Artistes.
