Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts continue to hunt for a new home, apparently. Although they still own the full-floor condo at One Madison Park that they purchased in 2007 for $6.05 million (and which they haven't had an easy time selling), they were recently spotted touring an unfinished loft at 120 11th Avenue that's on the market for $9 million. [NYP]
• Daniel Straus, co-founder of the insurance company Aveta Health and a major NYU donor, has purchased a new apartment on Park. Straus and his wife Joyce paid $5.4 million for an apartment at 888 Park Avenue. [Cityfile]More

• Flavio Briatore, the Italian mogul, racing car enthusiast, and Heidi Klum's baby daddy, has dropped the price of his penthouse at One Beacon Court. The 4,485-square-foot condo, which Briatore put on the market for $25 million in September 2008, is now listed for $23 million. Meanwhile, his apartment at the Plaza is still available as a $65,000-a-month rental. [Cityfile, Domus]
• Brett Gorvy, co-head of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's, and Amy Gold, Christie's director of business development, have paid $3.45 million for half of Abigail Disney's co-op at 300 West End Avenue, which was divided in two. The couple sold their former apartment at 470 West End Avenue for $2.175 million back in June. [NYO]
• Columbia Grammar and Prep, the UWS private school, is in expansion mode. Psychiatrist David Leibow and his wife, Sandra, sold their brownstone at 32 West 94th Street to the school last month for $7.15 million. The school paid $6.15 million for another brownstone on the block last summer. [NYT] More

• Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch has closed on the purchase of an apartment on the 46th-floor of One Beacon Court. It's located next door to the apartment he already owns. And the legendary exec—who just got out of the hospital a couple of weeks ago—scored a pretty good deal, too: Welch paid $8.3 million for the apartment, or nearly $1 million less than what it was first listed for back in February. [Cityfile, previously]
• Kimora Lee Simmons has dropped the price of her blingtastic mansion in Saddle River, NJ. The four-acre estate, which first went on the market for $23 million last year, is now listed for just $16.5 million. [NYP, Sotheby's]
• Restaurant mega-publicist and Iron Chef America judge Karine Bakhoum has put her co-op at 205 East 69th Street on the market. The three-bedroom pad with fireplace and chef's kitchen is listed for $2.35 million. [NYP, Halstead]More

• Hedge funder John Griffin and his wife Amy, who paid $32.25 million for a full-floor apartment at 1030 Fifth Avenue last year, are selling their old apartment in the same building. Now that they've finished renovations on the new spread, the couple has quietly put their 8th-floor apartment on the market with Serena Boardman for $16.5 million. [NYT]
• The townhouse at 11 East 82nd Street that was purchased by Ron Perelman as a home for one of his executives back in 1996 and was later acquired by private investor Keith Gollust, has gone into contract after more than a year and a half on the market. The limestone mansion was most recently priced at $29.5 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• Tokyo-born filmmaker Keiko Ibi is switching things up at 15 CPW. Back in July, she put her one-bedroom condo on the market for $3.75 million. Now she's partnered with her 7th floor neighbors, Young-oh and Byungwha Yoon, and they've listed their two apartments together for a combined $10.285 million. Corcoran's Carrie Chiang has the listing. [Cityfile, Corcoran]More

• Alec Baldwin has put his longtime co-op in the Eldorado on Central Park West on the market for $8.9 million. He's reportedly thinking about trading it in for a four-bedroom apartment at the Dakota, which has been reduced from $24 million to $12.5 million over the past year. [NYP]
• Former GE CEO Jack Welch is in contract to buy a three-bedroom pad at One Beacon Court that's next door to the condo he already owns. The 2,669-square-foot space was most recently listed for $8.995 million. [NYP, BHS]
• New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and his wife, Robin Wells, have paid $1.7 million for former Times reporter Joseph B. Treaster's three-bedroom co-op at 110 Riverside Drive. Meanwhile, the couple is currently in contract to sell their former apartment, a one-bedroom at 304 West 89th Street that was most recently listed for $599,000. [NYO, Corcoran]More

• Disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier's condo at One Beacon Court—along with his half-eaten pie and Christian Liaigre furnishings—sold at auction yesterday for $8.2 million after 45 people placed bids on the 3,000-square-foot pad. The buyer is Ajit Jain, a protégé of Warren Buffet and the head of Berkshire Hathaway's reinsurance group. [NYDN]
• Art dealer W. Graham Arader III has taken his mansion at 1016 Madison Avenue off the market. The 12,000-square-foot home went on the market for $75 million last October and was reduced to $65 million last month. [NYO]
• Attorney Bruce Blakeman, who launched a long shot bid for mayor this year, but is probably better known as the ex-husband of Paul McCartney's girlfriend Nancy Shevell, has picked up a new home in Water Mill. Blakeman bought the six-bedroom house for $2 million. [Newsday]

The apartment that belonged to disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier goes up for auction at 1pm today. And the winning bidder won't just walk away with a 3,000-square-foot pad and 738-square-foot terrace on the 34th floor of One Beacon Court. All the items that Dreier left behind are part of the package as well. In addition to nine pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream in the freezer, the lucky bidder will also walk away with "a half-eaten raspberry peach pie, a collection of Christian Liaigre furnishings and seven pairs of black Ermenegildo Zegna shoes, mostly size eight." Naturally, there's a catch, a little detail that goes unmentioned by the firm handling the auction this afternoon. Since Dreier was under house arrest for several months and wasn't even permitted to leave his apartment to walk the dog, the jailed lawyer is also reportedly leaving behind a terrace that's covered with dog doo. Bring a spoon (for the ice cream) and a bucket full of cleaning supplies (for the doo), and you'll be fully prepared. [Bloomberg]

• Archibald "Archie" Cox, Jr., the former CEO of Morgan Stanley International who was appointed chairman of Barclays Americas in 2008, has paid $12 million for a 49th floor apartment at One Beacon Court. The three-bedroom pad (left), which had most recently been listed for $14.4 million, was sold by Muirfield Capital Management chairman John Chalsty and his wife Jill. [Cityfile, floorplan]
• Retired tech exec Lawrence Mueller and his wife Mary Kay have put their 25th floor condo at 15 CPW on the market for $16.5 million, or nearly three times more than what they paid for it back in December '07. [Real Deal, PDE]
• Real estate magnate Murray Goodman has dropped the price of his duplex at 960 Fifth Avenue for the second time since listing it for $32.5 million in January. The four-bedroom co-op, which Goodman bought for $1.41 million back in 1981, is now priced at $27.6 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]

• Rihanna is close to signing an $18,000-a-month lease for a penthouse at 92 Greene Street. Originally listed at $22,000 a month, the 2,300-square-foot pad comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a sitting room, and a 500-square-foot terrace. [NYP, PDE]
• If our tour of disgraced lawyer Marc Dreier's One Beacon Court pad a couple of months ago happend to tickle your fancy, be advised it goes up for auction on July 21 at 1pm. [Maltz Auctions via Curbed]
• A full-floor apartment at the former Stanhope Hotel at 995 Fifth Avenue has sold for $17 million, down a stunning 45 percent from the original asking price of $31 million. [Real Deal] More

• Want to rent Rick and Kathy Hilton's house in Water Mill for the summer? The 10,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home, which the Hiltons purchased for $2.385 million in 1999, is currently listed for $400,000 for season. [Newsday]
• Flavio Briatore, the Italian mogul and Heidi Klum's baby daddy, has put his apartment at the Plaza up for rent for $65,000 a month. It's not the only property he has on the market: He's been trying to unload a penthouse at One Beacon Court for $25 million since September. [NYT, Domus]
• George Hirsch, the founding publisher of New York who paid $2.7 million for an apartment at 111 Central Park North in 2007, has sold his former home at 246 East 32nd Street for $2.88 million. [Cityfile]
• The 10,000-square-foot mansion at 54 East 64th Street, which was once home to the offices of the Observer, has undergone a $9 million price cut. It's now listed for $27 million. [NYO, Sotheby's]

The stock market is down nearly 500 points this afternoon, we're in the middle of a deep recession, and tens of thousands of New Yorkers have lost their jobs. But if by some crazy chance you've managed to avoid the pain and suffering and you're looking for, say, a five-bedroom penthouse in Midtown, it's never been a better time to swoop down and make an offer. The prices of dozens of luxe apartments have been slashed in recent weeks. And while the rental market hasn't been crushed just yet, prices are very, very negotiable. That $60,000-a-month rental? You might just be able to offer up $30K a month and walk away with a deal. After the jump, the 20 most expensive apartment rentals in Manhattan, including Donald Trump's insanely overpriced $200,000-a-month penthouse at 502 Park, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's equally ridiculous $47,500-a-month West Village spread. More