Socialite Libbie Mugrabi loses Hamptons mansion at wild court-ordered auction — after paying nothing on its $3.5M mortgage
Socialite Libbie Mugrabi loses Hamptons mansion at wild court-ordered auction — after paying nothing on its $3.5M mortgage
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Socialite Libbie Mugrabi lost her Hamptons mansion on the steps of Southampton Town Hall in a public, and wild, court-ordered auction held Friday morning — a rare occurrence in the tony East End.
The auction pulled in just $5.864 million for the Bridgehampton estate. That’s a far cry from the $25 million she sought for the 10,687-square-foot spread in May, not to mention a stunning about-face after winning a hefty $100 million in her fractious divorce from the billionaire art collector David Mugrabi in 2020.
The winning bidder, who showed up to the sale dressed to the nines with his wife, would neither comment on the purchase nor provide his name. Mugrabi, for her part, was not present.
The Mugrabis for years have been known for their particularly acrimonious split, which began in 2018 when David, now 54 — son of the Israeli industrialist Jose Mugrabi — filed for divorce from Libbie, now 46.
They had no prenup in place, and the proceedings spiraled into a circus. Among the antics, Mugrabi lugging a 25-pound, and $500,000, Keith Haring sculpture into a 2018 Manhattan Supreme Court appearance that she and David had “wrestled” over, according to a witness.
The former couple share two children and were married for 14 years — and were said to have spent $3.5 million annually. Rumors of infidelity had also circulated around the husband and wife, including allegations that David — whose family is known for owning the world’s largest collection of works by Andy Warhol — had a 26-year-old mistress.
More recently, Mugrabi’s drama centered on this East End estate, which carried a $3.5 million mortgage — which she admitted she hadn’t paid a cent toward. The lender, a shell company affiliated with REO Assets of America of Great Neck, N.Y., had sued Mugrabi over the property after she didn’t keep up with mortgage payments. This home is one of the most expensive assets Mugrabi got in the divorce.
Fast forward some years, and Friday’s sale was just as packed with bizarre behavior.
Some 10 interested bidders gathered for the auction, including Mugrabi’s sister, Mia Rowe, who initially won with a $7.8 million bid — but without a check in hand. After saying she was going to a nearby Chase to retrieve $780,000 for a deposit, she never returned.
That drew very loud objections from the other bidders, as interested parties had to appear with certified checks. A friend of Mugrabi’s family then turned to them and said, “This is a family matter. [Rowe will] beat any number you put out.”
The sale wasn’t shy of other television-worthy drama. Also present was Mugrabi’s mother, Jane Scher — along with her dog named Botox — who told the lender’s attorney, Ryan Mitola, “Your client is a d–k.”
That was before police arrived at the sale with lights flashing, over complaints Scher was being disruptive. When they arrived, they took Scher aside, telling her she was out of control, and escorted her back to her car.
“I go to lots of these things, and this one is hands down the most entertaining,” bidder Eddy Bellacera told The Post.
Despite the sale, Mugrabi still finds herself in a $9 million-plus hole to cover repayment of the mortgage, penalties and at least $140,000 in legal fees she racked up after blowing off payments.
It’s not clear how she has found herself in such debt despite winning a nine-figure divorce settlement. Still, she is known for her very high-end and money-burning tastes, including jetting off to Europe for fashion spending sprees and making it a priority to pamper herself.
Her inaction on the loan sparked a two-year legal donnybrook, whose ultimate aim was for her to turn over the keys to the 7-acre Middle Line Highway estate.
The auction’s proceeds will go toward paying off the loan, back interest and other costs.
Mugrabi earlier attempted to sell the home through a public listing in late spring. The listed price was $25 million, with two quick subsequent reductions to $19 million.
Even that proved to be a pie-in-the-sky number, given Mugrabi telling The Post the estate was listed at the “high end” of its value and her attorney, Claude Castro, telling a court the property was worth “between $10 million and $12 million.”
The listing resulted in only one offer, $7 million from a purported Nigerian prince with an allegedly sketchy background that Castro and Mugrabi were not comfortable with.
Still, Friday’s auction sure brought in more than the $500 her lender, a shell company affiliated with REO Assets of America of Great Neck, N.Y., paid for it in a February 2025 auction for the estate that was held online. The lender was the only bidder present.
That auction was held after Mugrabi first defaulted on the loan in October 2024 — and after vehement protests by Mugrabi and Castro over the move, the two sides struck an accord that the home was to be sold by Aug. 25, as well as many other considerations, to ensure the lender was paid back.
The attorneys agreed to go the auction route if the estate was not unloaded during that time through a real estate listing. The deed was destroyed when Mugrabi missed the deadline, Mitola said Thursday.
The auction came just 24 hours after Castro told a court that Mugrabi should be given more time to sell the home because she has lined up a new lender for an $8 million mortgage to purchase the property herself. In the early-morning hours of Friday, Castro filed an appeal in court seeking to prevent the sale from proceeding — an effort a judge denied just 2 minutes before the auction’s start time.
Mitola, for his part, told bidders before the sale “You’re buying litigation,” as he charged there are still legal issues with it.
Mugrabi offered as collateral a Jean-Michel Basquiat artwork worth $40 million, based on an assessment from an outside appraiser she submitted to the court. Mugrabi won back rights to the painting two weeks ago after tussling over its ownership in court with fine art financier, Art Capital LLC, which was extending her money on it for a separate loan.
The question now is if Mugrabi will file for bankruptcy. Attorneys for both sides have discussed the prospect, although Mugrabi had not taken that step as of early Friday morning, according to a check with the US Eastern District Bankruptcy Court, the district where the home stands and where Mugrabi has been living.
Mugrabi seems to relish the idea of legal tangles. “I feel great every time I’m in court,” the New York Times reported her as saying around the time of her divorce. “I love court.”
That’s probably a good thing, since there are still at least six cases she is currently involved in that haven’t been resolved. One of them, brought by art critic and cartoonist Anthony Haden-Guest, claims Mugrabi has 97 of his drawings in this Bridgehampton home that she won’t give back.
She is on the cusp of losing her wingman for that suit, though. Her attorney, Michael Regan, of Regan and Associates, is petitioning the judge on the case to free him from working with Mugrabi, citing “an irreconcilable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship and communication,” records show.