Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.
While views of Logan Roy’s Bouguereau have been in short supply in season 4 of Succession, Rakewell’s interest has been caught by the views from Kendall Roy’s apartment on the Upper East Side. The 5,500 sq ft penthouse was recently listed for $29 million, but there are few clues as to the current owner’s taste in home furnishings or high art – although is that a very matt mirror sculpture by Anish Kapoor over the fireplace? As the price tag suggests, perhaps featuring in a hit TV show is all you need to shift an expensive triplex these days.
More support for this theory can be found over on the Upper West Side, where Roman Roy’s apartment is also for sale. Only a duplex, yet it commands a price tag of $38 million – but it does come with an extra 1,000 sq ft. as well as one of the largest home gyms Rakewell has ever seen. Any expressions of personality here seem to have been tucked away into the light fittings, but your roving correspondent is always keen to be illuminated.
Across the Atlantic, another property with screen cred is up for sale: Denham Place, once owned by Harry Saltzman, who co-produced the first nine Bond films with Albert Broccoli. Rakewell isn’t sure that this attractive late 17th-century house in Buckinghamshire with landscaping that may or may not be by Capability Brown needs that much help, even from the world’s most famous fictional spy. (Real-life occupants include the exiled king of Naples and Sicily and J.P. Morgan.) But the library of the Grade-I listed property – yours for £75m – did inspire the set for M’s office in both Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. In keeping with the blankness of homes that really have been seen on screen, it now seems mercifully free of books.
Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.