It’s perhaps one of the most infamous (and biggest) private residences in New York: 14-16 East 67^th Street – the six-story, 30-room, limestone mansion formerly owned by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione.

Pages have been written on the art that once hung on the ballroom walls (a Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir, a couple Degas, a Modigliani nude, a Picasso…); the gilded piano that once belonged to Judy Garland; the pair of sphinxes, cast for Napoleon, bearing Marie Antoinette heads that guarded the 40-foot Romanesque swimming pool alongside a statue of Bacchus. (Guccione, as some might recall, also produced the X-rated flick Caligula, reportedly spending $17.5 million on it, only to have it bomb at the box office.)

Guccione designed every inch of the mansion’s 18,000 square feet. After he bought it in 1975, he set about scouring Europe for all its antiquities and architectural details. The ancient friezes, Etruscan style columns, George III pine paneling in the library, and gold fixtures in the potties were hand-picked by the man who was first to publish pubic hair. And, as the story goes, after his third wife Kathy Keeton died in 1997, he holed himself up in his bedroom, emerging only for a haircut. Guccione remained there until this past February, when the investment firm, which had taken possession of the pad in 2004 after the King of Porn filed for bankruptcy, finally evicted him after a protracted court case.

Since then, Corcoran Group has stepped in and spruced up the joint, painting walls and installing plush white pile carpets. When bidding begins in October at $45 million, the Guccione lair will probably break the sale record: “We definitely think it will,” says Lisa Simonsen, VP at Corcoran. To date, the Duke mansion on 82^nd St. & 5^th Ave holds the top prize at $40 million. 

Not that we’re in a buying kind of mood, but we checked the place out anyway: Amazing for parties.

Buy It:

For more info on the mansion, 14-16East67NYC.com

Caligula, $25, amazon.com