David Copperfield Sued Over Neglect of Luxury Penthouse
David Copperfield faces a lawsuit over his luxury Manhattan penthouse, which has caused significant damage to the building due to neglect.
An illusionist and performer David Copperfield is currently faced with a lawsuit regarding his Manhattan penthouse. The luxury 15,000-square-foot apartment at the Galleria Condominium has fallen into disrepair, and the property’s condo board is arguing in a lawsuit that Copperfield has trashed the penthouse, damaging the building in the process.
Copperfield bought the unit, as well as seven more smaller apartments, which he later annexed, for a total of $7.4 million in 1997. The penthouse was filled with a personal collection of unique and mostly wooden objects, from fortune-telling machines to elaborate novelties from the early 20th century.
The first major incident of 2015 involved the installation of an illegal pool on the penthouse’s sloping roof. The pool caused severe flooding and lasting damage to the building’s programmed elevator, with the water traveling to several floors.
Copperfield moved out in 2018, concluding that he only used the apartment to visit his native east coast two or three times a year. However, the water damage from multiple valve failures kept accumulating and caused the leaking of two floors through the ceiling of the Galleria’s eighth floor.
The condo board had to pay around $3 million for repairs and is now seeking $2.5 million in damages, in addition to legal fees and punitive damages. Copperfield’s camp argues that it is a simple insurance issue and the problem should be resolved in that context in the court. However, the lawsuit illustrates the danger of neglecting a luxury property and the associated consequences.
