The Republic of Serbia has bought a new home for its Permanent Mission to the United Nations – a stamp lover’s paradise in the Murray Hill townhouse designed by McKim, Mead & White that was previously home to the Collectors’ Club.
It’s Not Exactly “The Crying of Lot 49” The content – no mysterious stamp collection and Californian conspiracy created by Thomas Pynchon involving mail – but there is always intrigue when it comes to the European nation of Serbia.
The Serbs bought this five-story turn-of-the-century residence at 22 E. 35th St. for $7.9 million. As per city property records Filed Tuesday — while Stamp Club by the New York Public Library moves into a full-floor rental space at 58 W. 40th St.
The neo-Georgian residence, known as the Thomas and Fanny Clarke House, was owned by the Collectors Club Since 1937. (The organization was founded in 1896.)
purchase of serbs comes after sales of the Yugoslavia-bound Gilded Age mansion for $50 million in an all-cash deal in late September.
The six-story limestone Beaux-Arts mansion at 854 Fifth Avenue came with bulletproof windows and Cold War-era spy gear. This is where Tito reportedly hid after an assassination attempt in 1963 – and it was owned by the former Yugoslavia until war broke out in 1992.
It could not be listed for sale until all of the country’s former successor states – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia and Slovenia – agreed to the terms of the sale, including a cut of their deal. is included.
Tristan Harper of Douglas Elliman returned the successor states in that transaction. He also outbid Serbia in the off-market purchase of 22 E. 35th St. (Sources say the deal was closer to $8.5 million after taking into account closing costs and other issues.)
John Ciraulo, Craig Wagner, Mike Kavanagh and Carrie Lyon of Cushman & Wakefield repeat Collectors Club. Meanwhile, Lyon and Jenna Catalon of Cushman & Wakefield arranged the club’s 40th Street lease.
We hear that Serbs are also in talks to buy another building. Meanwhile, Serbian government officials had moved to the new excavations before it was closed. Sources told Gimme that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attended meetings there during the United Nations Assembly in September.