Antiquities Dealer Dalva Brothers Sells Former Upper East Side Mansion for $26M

A late Victorian mansion on the Upper East Side — long ago converted to commercial use — has sold for $26 million, according to property records.

EMS Capital purchased the building at 53 East 77th Street from Leon Dalva, president of antiquities dealer Dalva Brothers, who has operated the building as an art gallery and had submitted plans to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to restore the original facade.

Brokers from Global Wealth Office, such as Loy Carlos, Kenneth Moore, Perry Law and Colin Meagley, as well as EMS Capital did not respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear which side of the deal Global Wealth Office represented.

 Dalva Brothers could not be reached.

The building, known as The Ford-Kerrigan Mansion, was built around 1900 for editor and book publisher Paul Leicester Ford and designed by architect Henry Rutgers Marshall in the Beaux Arts style, but was later altered to a neo-Spanish Renaissance design in 1926 or 1927.

In 2006, Harry Macklowe’s Macklowe Properties bought the building for $15 million before using the mansion as collateral for a $543.8 million loan from Deutsche Bank two months later.

It’s unclear if EMS Capital, founded in 2007, has any affiliation with Macklowe Properties, but both had headquarters in the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue. Macklowe’s main office is now at 510 Madison Avenue. 

Macklowe Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.