Leon Black Plans to Turn Woolworth Mansion Into His Own Museum, Book Reveals
The disgraced financier, whose ties to Jeffrey Epstein are being investigated in Congress, told author William D. Cohan that he wants to turn the Manhattan property into “his version of the Neue Galerie.”
Billionaire art collector and MoMA board member Leon Black, whose connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are the subject of ongoing investigation, plans to convert an iconic Manhattan property into a foundation to display his estimated $5 billion art collection, a new book reveals.
In Money to Burn: Leon Black, Apollo and the Remaking of Wall Street (2026), veteran business journalist William D. Cohan writes that Black said he plans to turn the Woolworth Mansion on East 80th Street “into his version of the Neue Galerie.” The disgraced financier purchased the French Gothic estate last November for $38 million, Curbed reported.
Cohan’s new book lands amid deepening turmoil for Black. This week, the US House of Representatives voted to hold Black in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas in an Epstein investigation. In 2021, news broke that Black paid Epstein $158 million from 2012 to 2017 for financial advice, after Epstein's first accusation of sex-trafficking minors in 2005 and conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
Shortly after resigning from Apollo Global Management, Black stepped down as chairman of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2021, after Hyperallergic published an open letter signed by over 150 artists calling for his removal. He remains a trustee on the institution's board, despite ongoing campaigns for the museum to completely sever ties with him.
