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An 18-room duplex in the richest, fanciest apartment building in the world—owned by the government of France, no less, and used as the ambassador to the UN’s residence—reportedly just sold for $70 million. That’s a whopping $22M over the 740 Park Avenue apartment’s initial ask of $48 million. Apparently, three prospective buyers pushed the price up in a bidding war. France bought the apartment in 1979 for $600,000, but whatever, because that’s like $1,959,272.73 in today’s dollars. So just a 3,400 percent profit for the nation’s coffers, no big deal.

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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/17/frances_palatial_740_park_pad_sells_for_70m_way_over_ask.php