Exclusive | Landlords demand NYC socialite sell her $30M Basquiat to pay debts
The owners of a posh New York City pad are demanding embattled art world socialite Libbie Mugrabi hawk her multimillion-dollar Jean-Michel Basquiat painting to cough up the massive pile of back rent she owes.The landlords of The Park Mansion, a stunning Beaux-Arts building at 320 E 82nd St.in Yorkville claim that Mugrabi — the ex-wife of billionaire art dealer David Mugrabi — owes them $2.3 million in unpaid rent that she was first ordered to fork over in 2023.
Libbie Mugrabi lived in the luxurious $28,000-per-month condo for less than a year between 2019 and 2020.While her lease expired in November 2020, she stopped paying rent that April, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
She was first court-ordered to pay $1.8 million in 2023, but her landlords sued her again in June to pay them with 9% interest.Now, they are nudging her once again to pay up — this time by trying to force her to sell her Untitled 1982 Basquiat.The coveted artwork is being held at Phillips Auction House, who is named a petition respondent along with Mugrabi and her company, Moo Moo Enterprises, according to court papers.
The painting is believed to be valued between $4 million and $6 million, according the petition filed in New York Supreme Court on Oct.9.
But a previous complaint Mugrabi filed against Philips Auction House about the artwork in June values it at a whopping $30 million.Phillips was originally scheduled to auction off the painting in October 2024, but it was withdrawn from a sale amid a separate, ongoing legal battle, in which art-lending investment company Empire Chesapeake Holdings claims Mugrabi took out a lien on the painting.The owners of the East 82nd Street condo are also asking in the petition for a temporary restraining order to prevent the piece from being sold until a decision is made.Mugrabi, who was ordered in September to auction off her $25 million Hamptons mansion where she lived with her now ex-husband and said she was moving to...