The Duke-Semans has everything going for it: It stretches up 82nd street for 100 feet (a luxurious distance, in this part of Manhattan), then turns the corner, occupying 27 feet on Fifth Avenue.
If you stand on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and look across the street, you'll have a small chance of glimpsing the world's richest person.
Last month Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, who is worth US$53.5-billion, bought the Duke-Semans mansion, a beaux-arts townhouse directly across from the Met, for US$44-million, public records show. That record-breaking price is the most paid for any New York home in nearly two years.
