The owners of a posh New York City pad are demanding embattled art world socialite Libbie Mugrabi hawk her multimillion-dollar Jean-Michel Basquiat painting to cough up the massive pile of back rent she owes.
The landlords of The Park Mansion, a stunning Beaux-Arts building at 320 E 82nd St. in Yorkville claim that Mugrabi — the ex-wife of billionaire art dealer David Mugrabi — owes them $2.3 million in unpaid rent that she was first ordered to fork over in 2023.
Libbie Mugrabi lived in the luxurious $28,000-per-month condo for less than a year between 2019 and 2020. While her lease expired in November 2020, she stopped paying rent that April, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
She was first court-ordered to pay $1.8 million in 2023, but her landlords sued her again in June to pay them with 9% interest.
Now, they are nudging her once again to pay up — this time by trying to force her to sell her Untitled 1982 Basquiat.
The coveted artwork is being held at Phillips Auction House, who is named a petition respondent along with Mugrabi and her company, Moo Moo Enterprises, according to court papers.
The painting is believed to be valued between $4 million and $6 million, according the petition filed in New York Supreme Court on Oct. 9. But a previous complaint Mugrabi filed against Philips Auction House about the artwork in June values it at a whopping $30 million.
Phillips was originally scheduled to auction off the painting in October 2024, but it was withdrawn from a sale amid a separate, ongoing legal battle, in which art-lending investment company Empire Chesapeake Holdings claims Mugrabi took out a lien on the painting.
The owners of the East 82nd Street condo are also asking in the petition for a temporary restraining order to prevent the piece from being sold until a decision is made.
Mugrabi, who was ordered in September to auction off her $25 million Hamptons mansion where she lived with her now ex-husband and said she was moving to Florida this month, did not return a request for comment.
Attorneys for Moo Moo Enterprises and the owners of the apartment, and Phillips Auction House also did not return requests for comment.
