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Bowie may buy Leibovitz Rhinebeck home

Feb 02, 2010 5:03 pm
From The Daily News:
Financially stressed Vanity Fair photog Annie Leibovitz may have found buyers for her 220-acre spread in upstate Rhinebeck. A spy says David Bowie and wife, Iman, didn't blink at the $11 million price when they toured the place. "Annie did an incredible restoration of the barn complex" — four buildings that used to be part of Brooke Astor's estate, says our source.

Bloomberg adds some details about the estate:
In 1996, Leibovitz paid $2.3 million for 220 acres in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Rhinebeck, said appraiser Pete Hubbell, president of Hubbell Realty Services Inc. It was once part of the Astor family’s 3,500-acre estate, called Ferncliff. In 2002, Leibovitz paid $635,000 for an adjacent 7.8-acre parcel, the Dutchess County records show. The property includes a pond, a mix of meadows and woodlands, stone barns and a former creamery. Others with homes in the area include financier George Soros, hotelier Andre Balazs, and Rolling Stone magazine’s publisher, Jann Wenner, Hubbell said. “It’s a sleepy little town and no one pays attention to celebrities,” said Steve Mann, former president of the Museum of Rhinebeck History. “That’s why they like to come to Rhinebeck.” Hubbell, who has appraised the Leibovitz property, said it could be worth $4 to $6 million in today’s market. Rhinebeck’s official appraiser pegged the value at $5 million, according to a 2009 Dutchess county tax report.

Gawker supplies this photo of the estate:


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