Peter Beard's Long Island property evokes memories of its sybaritic past
Nejma Beard sleeps on the second floor of a small brown-shingled cottage where she can hear the ocean and watch deer feeding in the wild brush. Half of the grass on the rambling property grows wild, as it does in her native Kenya; a long rickety staircase descends to the sea.
Sitting here it is easy to forget that this six-acre property, the easternmost oceanfront plot on Long Island, sits alongside multi-million dollar Hamptons estates with their manicured lawns, tennis courts and infinity pools. There are few signs of the property's wild past as an epicenter of the 1970s Studio 54 scene, when the likes of Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jacqueline Onassis and Andy Warhol converged here and helped transform the Hamptons into a glittery second stage for bold-faced Manhattanites.
Ms. Beard is the wife of photographer Peter Beard, famed for his portraits of endangered African wildlife and for his associations with A-list society. After a couple of attempts to sell the property for $32 million and then for $26 million, the Beards are now trying to sell it through personal contacts. "I see myself as a guardian of the land," says Ms. Beard, who says she's looking for the right buyer and recently turned down an offer for $21 million. In this shaky market, brokers say the unusual property is difficult to appraise, though likely worth south of $25 million...
... Mr. Beard, now 71, has never been shy about his penchant for mind-altering substances and late-night revelry. The property became a magnet for rock stars, artists, models and their hangers-on and served as the backdrop for many of the photos that appear in Mr. Beard's books and collages. Mr. Jagger, who once rented Mr. Beard's millhouse for a summer, was photographed by Mr. Beard licking a lollipop on a boat in Montauk Lake. And a poster depicting a photo of Ms. Onassis skinny-dipping nearby was recently discovered in one of Mr. Warhol's time capsules at the Andy Warhol Museum, says the museum's spokesman—she signed it "Jackie Montauk."...
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Sitting here it is easy to forget that this six-acre property, the easternmost oceanfront plot on Long Island, sits alongside multi-million dollar Hamptons estates with their manicured lawns, tennis courts and infinity pools. There are few signs of the property's wild past as an epicenter of the 1970s Studio 54 scene, when the likes of Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jacqueline Onassis and Andy Warhol converged here and helped transform the Hamptons into a glittery second stage for bold-faced Manhattanites.
Ms. Beard is the wife of photographer Peter Beard, famed for his portraits of endangered African wildlife and for his associations with A-list society. After a couple of attempts to sell the property for $32 million and then for $26 million, the Beards are now trying to sell it through personal contacts. "I see myself as a guardian of the land," says Ms. Beard, who says she's looking for the right buyer and recently turned down an offer for $21 million. In this shaky market, brokers say the unusual property is difficult to appraise, though likely worth south of $25 million...
... Mr. Beard, now 71, has never been shy about his penchant for mind-altering substances and late-night revelry. The property became a magnet for rock stars, artists, models and their hangers-on and served as the backdrop for many of the photos that appear in Mr. Beard's books and collages. Mr. Jagger, who once rented Mr. Beard's millhouse for a summer, was photographed by Mr. Beard licking a lollipop on a boat in Montauk Lake. And a poster depicting a photo of Ms. Onassis skinny-dipping nearby was recently discovered in one of Mr. Warhol's time capsules at the Andy Warhol Museum, says the museum's spokesman—she signed it "Jackie Montauk."...