For years, downtown diners ate dinner a few feet from a Keith Haring and had no clue.
asserted
diners → eat → clue
Now that long-buried mural, painted by the pop art icon back when he was a broke art student, is the main attraction in a $25 million Tribeca triplex that just landed on the market.
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that → bury → market
The 8,000-square-foot maisonette sits inside the American Thread Building at 260 West Broadway, a Renaissance Revival landmark built in 1896.
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maisonette → sit → 1896
Ian Slater, Michael Koeneke and Eduardo Martinez of Trove Partners at Compass are shopping the seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom spread.
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Slater → shop → spread
The Haring stays put.
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Haring → stay → ?
“It’s a piece of New York City’s art history that can never be recreated or moved,” owner Adam Zoia told The Post.
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Zoia → ’ → Post
Haring made the black-and-white work in 1979, when he was enrolled at the School of Visual Arts and the school ran a student gallery out of the building’s lower floor.
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school → make → floor
He didn’t splurge on supplies.
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He → splurge → supplies
The future art star brushed on a homemade concoction of black shoe polish and alcohol, sending his trademark tangle of lines across two walls, the ceiling and a cast iron column that helps hold up the building.
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that → brush → building
“The Keith Haring mural is one of a kind,” Zoia said, adding that “it’s in a corner painted on both walls and even the ceiling, its scale is large, it’s painted in part over a cast iron column and it was painted by Keith before he was famous when he was only 20.”
The piece very nearly vanished.
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piece → say → Keith
After SVA cleared out in the early 1980s, the space was turned into a restaurant and the mural was sealed behind sheetrock, where it sat in the dark for decades.
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it → clear → decades
That cover turned out to be a lucky break, shielding the fragile work until the unit’s previous owners tore into the walls during a 2007 renovation and found it largely intact.
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it → turn → renovation
The Keith Haring Foundation later confirmed the unsigned piece as an early Haring.
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Foundation → confirm → Haring
Zoia, the CEO of Glocap Tech, snapped up the loft in 2021 and spent two years gutting it.
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Zoia → snap → it
Crews overhauled the HVAC and other guts of the home, laid marble floors, added Venetian plaster and reworked both the main level and the primary closet.
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Crews → overhaul → level
Protecting the Haring drove the redesign.
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Protecting → protect → redesign
Zoia built a custom bar in front of part of the mural to keep guests from brushing against it or splashing drinks on it, while the artwork keeps climbing up the wall and over the ceiling behind the bottles.
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artwork → build → bottles
So what’s a shoe polish masterpiece worth?
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masterpiece → ’ → ?
Nobody will say.
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Nobody → say → ?
Because it’s painted right onto the building’s columns, beam, ceiling and walls, the mural can’t be pried loose or sold on its own, according to reps for the sellers.
uncertain
mural → paint → sellers
“You can put a price on real estate, but it’s nearly impossible to put a value on something this rare,” Slater said.
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Slater → put → something
“What makes this property so exceptional is that the artwork is inseparable from the home itself, creating a rare opportunity for a buyer to own an irreplaceable work by an artist of such significance.”
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buyer → make → significance
The developer who first spotted the mural told Slater the artwork runs “well beyond that little area” that was exposed, stretching across much of the wall in the home’s main room.
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that → spot → room
That means whoever buys the place could, in theory, go looking for the rest.
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buys → mean → rest
The main floor centers on a 45-by-45-foot great room with 28-foot ceilings, three massive arched windows, white oak floors and designer lighting.
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floor → center → ceilings
A curved, marble-inlaid staircase leads up to two guest suites, the primary suite and a home office walled in curved glass that peers down over the great room.
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that → inlay → room
The primary suite plays like its own apartment, with a five-piece bath, a powder room and a huge custom closet.
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suite → play → bath
Downstairs, a nearly 2,000-square-foot lower level holds three more en-suite bedrooms and a kitchenette, plus a home spa and party zone.
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level → hold → bedrooms
Residents also get a 24-hour doorman, a building gym and a private roof deck.
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Residents → get → doorman
The property, once known as the Wool Exchange Building, was among Tribeca’s earliest luxury condo conversions and joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
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property → know → 2005
Zoia is selling as he looks to downsize, and he’s clear-eyed about who the next owner really answers to.
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owner → sell → who
“Whoever owns this home next isn’t just buying a property that includes the trading floor of the American Wool Association,” he said.
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he → own → Association
“They’re becoming the caretaker of a rare work of art.”
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They → become → art
The Aporia
