980 Madison Avenue (also known as the Parke-Bernet Galleries building) is a building located at

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

and East 76th Street on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It served as the headquarters of

Parke-Bernet Galleries Parke-Bernet Galleries was an American auction house, active from 1937 to 1964, when Sotheby's purchased it. The company was founded by a group of employees of the American Art Association, including Otto Bernet, Hiram H. Parke, Leslie A. Hyam, L ...

from its opening on November 10, 1949 to its sale in 1987. In 2006, ''The'' ''New York Times'' wrote that the building had functioned as "the

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

of the art world." The building is part of the

Upper East Side Historic District The Upper East Side Historic District is a landmarked historic district on the Upper East Side of New York City's borough of Manhattan, first designated by the city in 1981. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Its b ...

Design

When completed at a cost of over $1,000,000, the building occupied a

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

, from Seventy-sixth to Seventy-seventh streets on Madison Avenue. It had ten galleries and a larger auditorium, all covered in

mohair Mohair (pronounced ) is a fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat. (This should not be confused with Angora wool, which is made from the fur of the Angora rabbit.) Both durable and resilient, mohair is notable for its high luster ...

, that could seat 600 and 2,000 people, respectively. The building had over 45,000

square feet The square foot (plural square feet; abbreviated sq. ft, sf, or ft2; also denoted by '2) is an imperial unit and U.S. customary unit (non- SI, non-metric) of area, used mainly in the United States and partially in Canada, the United Kingdom, Bangl ...

and had a stage modeled upon those on Broadway. ''The New York Times'' wrote that the building was "hailed as a new departure in commercial structures." It was designed to be only six stories tall by the architects, A. Stewart Walker and

Alfred Easton Poor Alfred Easton Poor (May 24, 1899 – January 13, 1988) was an American architect noted particularly for buildings and projects in New York City and in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. government. A son of Charles Lane Poor, Alfred Poor served in th ...

, to allow light to reach the nearby

Carlyle Hotel The Carlyle Hotel, known formally as The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, is a combination luxury apartment hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 76th Street, on the Upper East Side of New York City. O ...

History

Parke-Bernet Parke-Bernet Galleries was an American auction house, active from 1937 to 1964, when Sotheby's purchased it. The company was founded by a group of employees of the American Art Association, including Otto Bernet, Hiram H. Parke, Leslie A. Hyam, ...

, an American auction house, had previously been headquartered at 30 East 57th Street. The galleries there which were considered very lavish. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote in 1949 that they were "always looked on as the most luxurious auction rooms in the world." In June 1949, after auctioning the

Joseph Brummer Joseph Brummer (1883 – 14 April 1947) was a Hungarian-born art dealer and collector who exhibited both antique artifacts from different cultures, early European art, and the works of modern painters and sculptors in his galleries in Paris a ...

art collection, Parke-Bernet ended auctions for the summer as its headquarters were to be

torn down ''Torn Down'' is a 2018 remix album by British alternative rock band The Cure, and a sequel to the 1990 remix album ''Mixed Up (The Cure album), Mixed Up''. It was released on Record Store Day 2018 (21 April, Robert Smith's 59th birthday), as wa ...

and a new building be constructed to hold the galleries. While the building was under construction, the auction house was based in the

Brummer Gallery Joseph Brummer (1883 – 14 April 1947) was a Hungarian-born art dealer and collector who exhibited both antique artifacts from different cultures, early European art, and the works of modern painters and sculptors in his galleries in Paris a ...

. The lot at 980

had previously been occupied by a house owned by

Seth Milliken Seth Llewellyn Milliken (December 12, 1831 – April 18, 1897) was a U.S. Representative from Maine. Early life Born in Montville, Maine, the son of William Milliken and Lucy P. Perrigo. Milliken attended the common schools and Waterville Coll ...

and five

rowhouses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...

. Walker & Poor designed the building in a modern style, and it was opened on November 10, 1949. The opening ceremony had around 2,500 attendees and speakers included Hiram H. Parke,

Robert W. Dowling Robert W. Dowling (September 9, 1895 – August 28, 1973) was a real estate investor and philanthropist in the New York City area. Dowling College was named for him. Biography Robert Whittle Dowling was born in New York City. His father Robert Em ...

and Leslie A. Hyam. The move led to the development of an art market on upper Madison Avenue. In March 1966 Peregrine Pollen, then president of

Sotheby Parke Bernet Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

, used the building for a concert by

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Philippe Entremont Philippe Entremont (born 7 June 1934) is a French classical pianist and conductor. His recordings as a pianist include concertos by Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns and others. Early life Philippe Entremont was born in ...

. In 1967, a

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

neighboring the galleries caught fire, and 200 people were evacuated from the building. None of the exhibits were damaged. On June 9, 1987, Sotheby Parke-Bernet announced that it was closing the galleries, causing an uproar in the New York City art community.

Klaus Perls Klaus Gunther Perls (1912–2008) was born in Berlin, Germany, where his parents were art dealers. He studied art history in Munich, but after the Nazis stopped granting degrees to Jews he moved to Basel, Switzerland and completed his studies. Here ...

, a German art dealer, said ''I am shattered by the news. I thought that Sotheby's was the greatest asset to the art market in New York that could be imagined. I think a lot of the glamour that has characterized the art market in New York over the last 20 years is going to disappear when Sotheby's leaves the premises.'' Parke-Bernet relocated to its

York Avenue York Avenue and Sutton Place are the names of a relatively short north-south thoroughfare in the Yorkville, Manhattan, Yorkville, Lenox Hill, and Sutton Place neighborhoods of the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. ...

galleries. The building was then divided into small rooms for

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

and included in the

. In the 2000 '' A.I.A. Guide to New York City'' the building was described as "an insipid box unrelated to any cultural values."

Statue

The building has an

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

sculpture titled "Venus and Manhattan" by

Wheeler Williams Wheeler Williams (November 30, 1897 – August 12, 1972) was an American sculptor, born in Chicago, Illinois. Life and career Williams studied sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He attended Yale, where he graduated ...

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

. The statue is roughly by , and upon its construction was praised by

William Adams Delano William Adams Delano (January 21, 1874 – January 12, 1960), an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long I ...

, Robert W. Dowling, and

Francis Keally Francis J. Keally (1889 - 1978) was an American architect and pioneering preservationist, based in New York City. Keally's design credits include the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Oregon in 1938, in a one-time association with Trowbridge & L ...

(the president of the

Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...

). Parts of the statue protruded over the building line, and Parke-Bernet agreed to pay $25 per year to 'rent' the space occupied by the statue.

Proposed remodel

In 2006,

Aby Rosen Aby or ABY may refer to: Places * Aby, Ivory Coast * Aby Lagoon, a lagoon in Ivory Coast * Abyy or Aby, Sakha Republic, Russia ** Aby Lowland * Aby, Lincolnshire, a village in England, UK * Åby, Norrköping Municipality, Sweden * Åby, Växjö Mu ...

offered to restore the building to its original appearance, but made the offer contingent upon being able to construct a 30-story glass tower on top of the galleries. The tower was designed by

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, and supported by prominent figures such as

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror- finish su ...

Tory Burch Tory Burch (née Robinson; born June 17, 1966) is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC. She was listed as the 88th most powerfu ...

, and

Ronald Perelman Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman and investor. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, cars, photography, t ...

. However, many in New York disliked the proposed design. The New York City Landmarks Commission reviewed the proposal, and in January 2007 rejected it. Rosen and Foster then proposed a new, six story addition in May 2008, and in November 2009 a smaller, five story addition was accepted. The proposal had not been started in 2013 and Aby Rosen put the property on the market. In 2019 Ramy Brook, a fashion house, opened a

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

store at the location.

References

{{Reflist Madison Avenue Sotheby's Upper East Side