03/21/2026
Two women in their 80s were physically removed from their home by federal marshals, and they still wouldn't stop fighting...
On Wednesday, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the $34.5 million sale of 15 East 63rd Street — a six-story, 18,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side built in 1901, steps from what was once known as Millionaire's Row. The anonymous buyer, listed only as a Delaware LLC in court papers, inherited one of New York's most architecturally intact Gilded Age homes — and an estimated $25 million renovation bill.
The legal road to that sale was almost unimaginably complicated. Marianne Nestor Cassini, the secret widow of fashion designer Oleg Cassini — who sketched gowns for Jacqueline Kennedy in this very building — and her sister Peggy Nestor had owned the home since 1984. As debts accumulated over decades, courts repeatedly ordered them to sell. They refused for years. Peggy filed for bankruptcy in 2023 — one day before a scheduled foreclosure sale — buying the sisters more time in the home. They were ultimately forcibly removed by U.S. Marshals in 2024, which Marianne described in court as being "put on the street in a robe." Even after eviction, the sisters continued filing legal challenges. Just this week, Marianne told a reporter the sale was not going to close. The judge disagreed.
The property was originally listed for $65 million two years ago, meaning the $34.5 million sale represents nearly a 47% markdown from that ask.
This is less a real estate story and more a story about what grief, pride, and the refusal to let go can cost — financially and personally. What does it say that two people in their 80s fought this hard, for this long, for a home they could no longer afford to keep?