Julian Schnabel breathed his spirit into the Palazzo Chupi, his pink West Village condo building. He molded its ruddy towers into his own image. He gave it life. And what does it give him? Nothing. His Gesamtkunstwerk has grown into a monster — a big, hulking, empty monster that no one wants to spend many millions of dollars to live in. Last month, Schnabel was forced to reduce the price on the upstairs penthouse of the Chupi because, as he told us, he “really wants to sell it.” Today, he reduced the price on the downstairs condo to $23 million, $4 million less than its original price. And it pains him. Oh, how it pains him when he comes home to that sullen, beast of a building. He can’t even talk about it, as evidenced by this paparazzi video, wherein he is unable to even summon a wan “It’s Pompeii red” when a passerby asks about his “pink building.” Will the Chupi ever get out of this stage?
CHUPI IN CRISIS: Palazzo Duplex Joins the Chopping Block [Curbed]
