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This is what a townhouse looks like...!
23 Gramercy Park South last year for $18.5 million. The buyers of the 27-foot-wide landmark were Colombian heir Andrés Santo Domingo and his wife, socialite and Vogue contributor Lauren Santo Domingo. Apparently they weren't completely satisfied with their purchase, because the house is about to undergo a serious renovation.
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Backstory
The Chicago-born Susan was a beauty queen and Pan Am stewardess before she married John Gutfreund in 1981. The CEO of the Wall Street powerhouse Salomon Bros at the time, Gutfreund was one of the most powerful men in town, and Susan quickly took to the role of trophy wife, throwing lavish parties and nearly melting her Gold Card from overuse. She hasn't been as high-profile since the early '90s, though, when her husband was embroiled in a bond trading scandal, fined $100,000, and banned for life from running a brokerage firm. Still, Susan never became a permanent social pariah and she remains a presence on the socialite scene and charity circuit.
In person
A poster child for the excess that consumed Wall Street in the 1980s, Susan's extravagances are the stuff of legend. When she wanted to surprise her husband in Paris for his birthday, she booked two tickets on the Concorde, one for her and one for the chocolate cake she brought with her. One Christmas, she hired a construction crew with a crane to deposit her two-story tree in her double-height living room. Gutfreund spared no expense when it came to hosting swanky parties at her home either: She insisted that invites be delivered by her chauffeur in a limousine and not mailed.
On screen
If Gutfreund's extravagances sound like a period film from another century, well, you're not far off. In the 1990s, Gutfreund struck up a friendship with Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, the filmmakers responsible for such costume dramas as Remains of the Day, A Room with a View, Howard's End, and Jefferson in Paris. Gutfreund ended up having tiny roles in two of their films, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and The Golden Bowl.
Habitat
Not surprisingly, the Gutfreunds' duplex at 834 Fifth is reported to be one of the most lavish in town: Susan is rumored to have spent millions decorating it in the style of Louis XVI with the help of the legendary French decorator Henri Samuel. The apartment features a sweeping staircase (a Monet hangs at the top landing) and vast living room overlooking Central Park. Her neighbors in the building include Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng, Woody Johnson, Hal Prince, and fellow society doyenne Carroll Petrie