Art collector and real estate financier Aby Rosen paid $55 million for the Gilded Age landmark building at 190 Bowery in New York, which had been owned for decades by photographer Jay Maisel. Maisel bought the property—the former Germania Bank building—around 1966 for a reported $102,000, making the sale a dramatic example of New York real estate appreciation. The building, located near the New Museum, was listed on Rosen's company RFR Holdings before he entered a contract to purchase it in August, and was subsequently re-listed for sale through Cushman & Wakefield.
This transaction matters because it highlights the intersection of art-world figures and real estate speculation in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Rosen, a prominent art collector known for acquiring major works by Basquiat and Rothko, purchased a building that was a long-held bohemian landmark and artist studio, underscoring how the art market and property development increasingly converge in cities like New York. The sale also reflects the ongoing transformation of the Bowery, once a hub for artists and counterculture, into a high-value commercial and residential district.