The Ritz’s ‘Versailles in the sky’ finally sells at a 50% discount

Financier Howard Marks listed the two-bedroom condo for $50 million in 2012

After no less than five years on the market, the Ritz Carlton apartment of financier Howard Marks and his wife, Nancy, has finally sold at a steep discount. Marks listed the so-called "Versailles in the sky" for $50 million in July of 2012, an eye-popping figure for a two-bedroom apartment. After failing to sell, Marks relisted the apartment in 2015 with the same asking price, and again in April 2017 for the much reduced ask of $27 million.

That lowered price baited a buyer. The apartment sold for $25 million, public records show, to the anonymous Central Park South 50 Properties LLC. As for the Markses, they're off to the 30-room co-op at 740 Park Avenue, for which they paid $52.5 million in 2012, at the time breaking a record for the city's most expensive co-op.

The Markses purchased the 4,600-square-foot Ritz Carlton spread for $18.875 million in 2007. They hired designer Michael Smith for a high-end renovation that brought in decorative elements that gave it the "Versailles-in-the-sky" descriptor: "hand-hammered German silver floors, Venetian plaster walls, 18th-century-style wood paneling by Feau & Cie, and an elegant chinoiserie wood-paneled library" are among its many fancy finishes.

• The Ritz's 'Versailles in the sky' returns with a huge price chop [Curbed]
• 'Versailles in the Sky' on Central Park South Returns For $50M [Curbed]
• Two-Bedroom in the Ritz Carlton Seeks $50M [Curbed]