Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Celebrity News

Mystery buyer snatches East Hampton mansion for $145M

An 18-acre estate in East Hampton has been sold for $145 million, sources say, setting a new record for the highest priced residential sale in the nation. But the buyer remains a secret.

“Everybody out here is totally mystified,” one local told me.

The beachfront property on Further Lane — with formal gardens and a pond — was the dream house of Christopher H. Browne, managing director of the Tweedy, Browne Company investment firm, and his boyfriend, architect Andrew Gordon.

Hampton Pix
Brown died of a heart attack at age 62 in a Florida bar in December 2009, leaving almost his entire estate to Gordon, his partner of 10 years.

But a dozen of Browne’s relatives — and his longtime chef — challenged the will. Gordon, who was dying of cancer, made a confidential settlement in December 2012 that allowed him to spend the rest of his life in the house.

When Gordon died last September at the age of 52, Browne’s relatives immediately looked to sell the property — and didn’t use a broker, to avoid paying commissions.

“Somehow, someone got the inside track. All the brokers are crestfallen,” a source told The Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil.

The mystery buyer will have Jerry Seinfeld, art dealer Larry Gagosian and hedge-fund manager Jim Chanos as neighbors.

Entertainment mogul David Geffen was said to be one of the house hunters who looked at the property before he signed a contract to buy Courtney Sale Ross’ estate on Georgica Pond for $50 million.

The $145 million sale of Browne and Gordon’s home would break the record set two weeks ago when the 50-acre Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich, Conn., sold for $120 million.

The deal also tops the $103 million Ron Baron paid in 2007 for an undeveloped 40-acre parcel, also on Further Lane, where the billionaire is building a 28,000-square-foot mansion.