Museum of Natural History Sells Former Prez’s E. 79th St. Co-Op for $5.5 Million
City records confirm that James McDonald, a partner at the high-end law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, bought the property for $5.5 million. For 30 years, it was home to the American Museum of Natural History’s former president, Ellen Futter. It’s unclear where the museum’s current head, Sean Decatur, lives.
| 13 Dec 2024 | 06:28
The American Museum of Natural History has sold a luxury co-op at 79 E. 79th St. for $5.5 million. It used to house Ellen Futter, the museum’s former president, who lived there rent free for 30 years. (
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The living room of the swanky co-op that was owned by the American Museum of Natural History until Nov. 26, when it was sold to a partner at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell. (
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The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) sold a luxury co-op on E. 79th St. that housed its former president for $5.5. million dollars on Nov. 26, according to city records, as first reported by Crain’s New York Business and confirmed by Straus News. James McDonald, a partner at the white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, was the buyer. He will reportedly live there with his wife Maria Carlo, an oncologist.
Ellen Futter, who served as the head of the museum between 1993 and 2023, lived in the well-appointed domicile–which was rent-free and tax-free–during her tenure; it was reportedly purchased to house Futtner, who is also a former president of Barnard College and a corporate lawyer. A previous co-op owned by the American Museum of Natural History and used by some of its other former presidents, on Manhattan’s West Side, was sold around 1994 for $6.8 million.
The co-op on E. 79th St. features a living room with a fireplace, a dedicated library, and a ritzy dining room replete with a chandelier. The overall monthly rent was estimated at around $15,000 by Crain’s, which was factored into her compensation package, which also included a $1.1 million annual salary. The museum apparently argued to the public that they “required” her to live there for “convenience” purposes, according to tax returns. The arrangement utilizes part of tax code that allows institutions to categorize such housing expenses as “income,” because their presidents are technically employees, with their apartments classified as being on the museum’s “business premises.”
It’s unclear where Sean Decatur, Futtner’s successor as the head of The American Museum of Natural History, lives. However, his housing does not appear to be based on a similar tax-free compensation model.
Instead, upon his accession to the role in 2023, Decatur–a former president of Kenyon College–said that he’d break with precedent by receiving a more humble housing stipend. In a New York Times article from that year, a museum spokesperson said that Decatur had made the decision not to move into the E. 79th St. home. They cited a “more current” trend of not awarding museum executives excessive benefits at a time when working-class employees in the industry are struggling, although it’s unclear what Decatur’s overall salary is. The article pointed out that the board was set to decide on whether to keep the co-op that fall, which it evidently decided against.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art offloaded a pricey piece of Fifth Ave. real estate for $5.6 million dollars, in 2019, for a similar reason. Its current president Max Hollein now receives a taxable housing allowance, much like Decatur.
As Crain’s points out, Bernard Spitzer—a real estate developer and the father of former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer—once sold a number of similar condos to the nonprofit that runs the American Museum of Natural History in the mid-aughts. Some of these were located in The Corinthian, a swanky 57-unit apartment building that Spitzer developed at 330 E. 38th St. Most of these have since been sold.
The American Museum of Natural History pointed to the 2023 Times article when reached for comment.