Open your own art gallery, school, or private club in this $29.5M Upper East Side mansion

The 14,500 square-foot Upper East Side mansion at 53 East 77th Street is currently being used as a showroom by Dalva Brothers, world-renowned dealers in 18th-century French furniture and decorative arts. Currently asking $29,500,000, the property has been in the Dalva family since 2008. The massive multi-use townhouse has previously been a single-family mansion as well as home to Cello eatery, Funk and Wagnalls library, and a recording studio.

The property is zoned for commercial use; its location, size, elegant outdoor spaces, and historic details make it a perfect blank slate for an art gallery, school, club, diplomatic residence, or other institution. Live and work here by creating a mixed building with residential space above office or commercial floors.

A buyer could also convert the building into a grand mansion, complete with central A/C and an elevator that takes you from the cellar to the penthouse with ease

As a showroom for peerless antique furniture, the property has seen scores of rare items pass through its elegant rooms.

Pieces sold by the family have been acquired by museums such as the Getty, the Met and the Louvre. Dalva Brothers donated The Dauphin’s Sleigh, which it had recently acquired, to Versailles.

The building offers north, south and west-facing windows, grand proportions, and architectural details. Add to that a covetable location just Madison Avenue across from The Carlyle and a block from Central Park.

[Listing details: 53 East 77th Street at CityRealty]

[At Brown Harris Stevens by Shelley S. Saxton]

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Photos courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens