Roy Lichtenstein's last NYC home sell to unknown buyer for $6.5M

New York Post

15-05-2025

The last remaining New York City property owned by the estate of celebrated pop artist Roy Lichtenstein has found a buyer, The Post has learned.
Located at 739 Washington Street in Manhattan's West Village, the redbrick Greek Revival townhouse sold this week for $6.525 million, marking the latest step in the methodical dissolution of the artist's once-expansive real estate footprint.
Tucked into a quiet block steps from the Hudson River, the three-story home built in 1845 spans nearly 3,700 square feet and retains many of its 19th-century details, including pumpkin pine floors, six fireplaces and intricate molding.
20 The last New York City property owned by celebrated pop artist Roy Lichtenstein has sold for $6.525 million.
Michael Weinstein
20 The home occupies nearly 3,700 square feet.
Michael Weinstein
20 Greek Revival townhouse served as a guesthouse for Lichtenstein, according to listing agent Lee Ann Jaffee of Compass.
Michael Weinstein
Despite being used as an office for the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in recent years, the home's layout and period charm offered strong appeal to buyers drawn to historic authenticity in a neighborhood increasingly dotted with modern conversions.
It was initially listed for $6.9 million in November before entering into contract just a few short months later, at the start of 2025.
Clayton Orrigo, also of Compass, represented the unidentified buyer.
20 The townhouse is located at 739 Washington Street in the West Village.
Michael Weinstein
20 Built in 1845, the six-bedroom, 3.5-bath residence is the latest in a series of properties being sold by the Lichtenstein estate.
Michael Weinstein
20 Roy Lichtenstein's wife, Dorothy, purchased the residence for them to use as a guesthouse back in 1995.
Michael Weinstein
20 The property was initially listed in November 2024 for $6.9 million.
Michael Weinstein
The building sits directly adjacent to Lichtenstein's longtime home and studio, a former metalworking shop at 741/745 Washington Street, donated in 2022 by his widow, Dorothy Lichtenstein, to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
According to Lee Ann Jaffee of Compass, who co-listed the property with colleague Steven Sumser, 'It was a guest house. I shouldn't say he never lived there. I do not know of him ever living there. It was always represented to me that it was a guest house.'
Just a few feet south lies 747 Washington Street, a garage that once housed the artist's personal art and wine collection.
The Post previously reported that the property sold earlier this year for $5.5 million to an anonymous buyer operating under the LLC 'WHAAM-NOMAD'— a not-so-subtle nod to Lichtenstein's iconic 1963 painting 'Whaam!'
20 The garage at 747 Washington Street, which housed Roy Lichtenstein's personal art and wine collection, sold for $5.5 million in March.
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The sale of 739 Washington concludes a physical chapter in the Lichtenstein estate's multi-year effort to downsize and distribute the artist's holdings following Dorothy's death last July. She had spent decades preserving and stewarding her husband's legacy through exhibitions, donations and the meticulous cataloguing of his oeuvre through the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
That work has culminated in a broader unwinding.
The foundation has announced it will cease operations by 2026, having fulfilled its mission of publishing Lichtenstein's catalogue raisonné and distributing thousands of works and archival materials to institutions around the world.
Among the most prominent recipients, the Whitney now occupies Lichtenstein's former Manhattan studio as the permanent home of its Independent Study Program.
20 Roy Lichtenstein's studio and main residence at 741-745 Washington Street was been donated to The Whitney Museum of American Art in 2022.
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20 Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923 – 1997) in his New York studio, 1962.The building — originally constructed in 1912 — was where Lichtenstein lived, painted, and entertained visitors during his later years.
'He worked downstairs, ate lunch at the same diner every day, and lived upstairs in a one-bedroom with Dorothy,' according to Curbed. The space is currently being renovated by Johnston Marklee, the architecture firm behind major museum projects in Houston and Chicago.
Just next door, the garage at 747 Washington has a more utilitarian design, but it proved equally valuable.
In addition to room for four cars, it includes a steel-and-wood staircase leading to a private office, a landscaped roof deck and skyline views.
20 Roy Lichtenstein's longtime Hamptons retreat, once a carriage house, hit the market for roughly $20 million in September following the death of his wife, Dorothy, and remains on the market.
Richard Taverna for Sotheby's International Realty
Beyond Manhattan, the artist's coastal sanctuary is also on the market.
In September, the couple's longtime home, once a carriage house on Southampton's prestigious Gin Lane, was listed for $19.99 million, The Post reported.
The 2-acre property, where Roy worked in a separate studio across the lawn and Dorothy ultimately passed away last summer, had never before been for sale in the 54 years since the Lichtensteins purchased it.
'It's going to make a really nice home for somebody because it's unique,' Harald Grant of Sotheby's International Realty, one of the co-listing agents, told The Post.
20 A photo showing inside Roy Lichtenstein's Southampton studio.
20 The perfectly manicured gardens at the Lichtenstein's longtime Hamptons estate.
Richard Taverna for Sotheby's International Realty
While the real estate assets are being dispersed, the centerpiece of the estate's final chapter is unfolding this evening and Friday night at Sotheby's New York.
More than 40 works from the private collection of Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein are headed to the auction block as part of the house's marquee Contemporary Evening and Day Sales.
Estimated to exceed $35 million in total, the works chart four decades of the artist's output—from early drawings to large-scale paintings, sculptures, and prints.
'From drawings to paintings to sculpture, this phenomenal group of works provides a front row seat to Lichtenstein's incomparable genius,' David Galperin, Sotheby's Vice Chairman and Head of Contemporary Art in New York, said in a statement.
20 More than 40 works from the Lichtensteins' personal collection will be offered at Sotheby's on the evenings of May 15 and 16, with expectations exceeding $35 million, according to the auction house.
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'Together, the group is a survey of the artist's reflections of art history over four decades of practice.'
Among the highlights is Reflections: Art (1988), estimated to fetch between $4 million and $6 million. The acrylic-on-canvas piece belongs to Lichtenstein's celebrated 'Reflections' series, where he obscured iconic images with simulated glass glares — both a play on illusion and a metaphor for art's relationship to perception.
'To my father, art was all about composition,' said Mitchell Lichtenstein, the artist's son, in a statement. 'When asked for comment about his subject matter, he often said, 'It's just marks on a page.''
20 A painting seen at Roy Lichtenstein's Southamptons studio, situated in the middle right, titled 'Reflections: Art' from 1988, painted with acrylic, oil and graphite on canvas and is estimated to go for between $4,000,000 – 6,000,000.
Sotheby's
20 Woman: Sunlight, Moonlight 1996, acrylic on wood, estimate $4,000,000 – 6,000,000
Sotheby's
Other marquee offerings include Woman: Sunlight, Moonlight (1996), a double-sided sculpture in painted wood — a study for a bronze edition later acquired by institutions like The Broad in Los Angeles — and Stretcher Frame with Cross Bars III (1968), one of only eleven such works exploring the backside of a painting.
'The amusing aspect of the Stretcher Frame painting is that of the two sides of a canvas, it depicts the side we least want to see,' said Mitchell.
Sculptures such as Mirror I (1976) echo the artist's lifelong fascination with the idea of reflection and illusion, while collage studies like Interior with African Mask (Study) (1990) reveal his painstaking process in constructing his 'Interiors' series, which poked fun at the aspirational settings common in shelter magazines.
20 Mirror I
1976, painted and patinated bronze
Estimate $1,000,000 – 1,500,000
20 Roy Lichtenstein with his wife, philanthropist Dorothy, at his New York studio in 1968.
Getty Images
'One amusing thing to consider about the Interior series is that the generic furniture ad aesthetic of the rooms depicted in them is likely to be antithetical to the taste of the collector and to the room in which they hang the work,' Mitchell noted.
Other featured works include Haystacks (1968), Lichtenstein's tongue-in-cheek nod to Monet's Impressionist series, reinterpreted with bold Ben-Day dots; Entablature (1975), incorporating sand from the Southampton beaches near his studio; and Cover Image (The Gun in America) for Time Magazine (Study) (circa 1968), a graphite-on-paper rendering originally commissioned in response to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
'Lichtenstein was keenly aware of his place in the lineage of art history,' said Lucius Elliott, Head of Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auctions in New York. 'The crux of his practice is this interrogation of the nature of art and image making.'
20 Mirror I Interior with African Mask (Study) 1990, tape, cut painted paper, cut sponge-painted paper, cut printed paper, marker, graphite pencil on board Estimate $800,000 – 1,200,000 Estimate $1,000,000 – 1,500,000
Sotheby's
20 Cover Image (The Gun in America) for Time Magazine (Study) Circa 1968, graphite on paper, estimate $200,000-300,000
Sotheby's
Born in New York City in 1923, Roy's early artistic ambitions took shape at Ohio State University after World War II.
He rose to fame in the 1960s for his stylized comic book paintings and went on to produce over 5,000 works spanning media, genres, and decades. Despite early critical controversy, his pieces are now held by museums including MoMA, the Whitney, the Centre Pompidou, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
His widow, Dorothy, was instrumental in cementing that legacy. A Brooklyn native and former gallery director, she co-founded the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and was its longtime president, overseeing major donations of more than 1,000 works to institutions worldwide.