. The deal set the record for the most expensive home sold in the United States, and holds it still.
By Clarke's account, it's Tal —"more dogged in his fight for a deal" than Oren — who made the transaction happen. Both brothers have a"preternatural skill for sniffing out the real estate market's newest whales," Clarke writes, in part by keeping an eye on the blue-chip art market,"the theory being that billionaires who were actively shelling out hundreds of millions for the Old Masters might also be willing to spend big on real estate.
Tal wouldn't reveal how he acquired Griffin's cell phone number, Clarke noted, but one of the writer's sources said he bought it from a former FBI agent. Once Tal got Griffin on the phone, it was on. But Griffin wasn't interested in the penthouse Tal had in mind for him. He wanted to create a custom quadruplex in the middle of the building, so his views would skim the treetops of Central Park.
After a period of negotiations —"He was a ball buster," a source told Clarke of his approach — Griffin agreed to pay $239.96 million for the pied-a-terre. (Griffin