(Fox Business) Art preservationists have concocted a plan to save a New York art museum’s music room: move it to Jeffrey Epstein’s now vacant multimillion-dollar townhouse.
The Frick Collection, an art museum located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side – just across the street from Epstein’s palatial townhouse – has faced criticism for renovation plans that would eliminate the institution’s beloved music room.
Instead of nixing the space, officials behind some preservation groups have suggested the music room be moved into Epstein’s now-vacant townhouse, according to the New York Daily News and Gothamist, which was first to report on the efforts.
“I can’t imagine a family that would want to raise their children in that cursed mansion. It’s going to be hard to sell,” said Theodore Grunewald, who spearheads the Save the Frick preservation campaign, the Daily News reported. “The fact that it’s so convenient to the museum means that the Frick could potentially lay Jeffrey Epstein’s name to rest by purchasing it and changing the function. It could essentially be cleansing the house.”
Meanwhile, the previously convicted sex offender’s former home on East 71st Street, which is worth an estimated $55.9 million, allegedly hosted criminal activities and evidence of such. Following Epstein’s July 2019 child sex trafficking arrest, law enforcement raided the home and reportedly found photos that “appear to be of underage girls, including at least one girl who, according to her counsel, was underage at the time the relevant photographs were taken,” prosecutors told the court before Epstein’s August death.
Despite the sprawling six-floor home’s tony location, experts previously told the New York Post they suspect the building “will be a difficult house to sell,” given its tainted history.
