On the market for the sum of $5.85 million (€4.49 million), number 169 East 71st Street, on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, is a house with history having featured prominently in Breakfast at Tiffany’s where the lead role of Holly Golightly was played by Audrey Hepburn.
In the year the movie celebrates its 50th anniversary, the 297sq m (3,200sq ft) townhouse comes to the market through Manhattan agents Corcoran.
The present owner, Peter E Bacanovic, is a former Merrill Lynch broker who was sentenced to five months in prison for his role in the Martha Stewart insider-trading case. He bought the house for $1.88 million (€1.44 million) in 2000.
It was here Holly Golightly lived and hosted her wild cocktail parties, but movie lore says the interiors were filmed on a Hollywood set.
The house no longer wears the green and white striped window awnings that were another feature of the film. It now proudly shows off a set of pink steps leading up to matt black doors.
Inside, the house is divided into two duplex apartments, which would explain why Mr Yunioshi’s top-floor artist’s atelier is nowhere to be found on the floor plans.
Despite its starring role, the house does not attract nearly as many fans as 66 Perry Street in Greenwich Village, says agent Robby Browne of the brownstone that was home to Sex and the City’ s Carrie Bradley, the character played by Sarah Jessica Parker.
A tenant lives in the two-bedroom garden duplex. It also has a solarium and a large backyard. The sitting room in the upper apartment looks onto the street, and a staircase leads up to the two en-suite bedrooms. The master bedroom has a decorative fireplace.
According to the New York Times, the selling agent agent says his client wasn’t convinced that all the interiors were shot in Hollywood.
He believes “that the party Holly hosted in a dress fashioned from a bed sheet was held in his living room” because he is convinced he recognises the original window shutters.
Article originally published in The Irish Times - www.irishtimes.com
