by Illusiuonist David Copperfield allowed his multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment to “degenerate into a state of… dilapidation” so severe, architects warned, it could endanger the structural integrity of the entire building.
That’s according to an eye-popping lawsuit filed Tuesday by the board of The Galleria, a condo on East 57th Street, that accuses 67-year-old Copperfield — the world’s highest-paid magician — of causing about $3 million in damages. not only. to his “previously pristine multi-level penthouse,” but to other tenants’ homes.
Copperfield “trashed” the place, which he no longer lives in but still owns, leaving it in “terrible” condition, the complaint says. His motivation for destroying his own apartment and letting it rot is “totally unclear, especially when the Unit still owns it and is marketing it for sale,” the complaint says.
Although the situation poses potential health hazards in addition to the physical deterioration, the complaint contends that Copperfield “refuses to face the consequences of his actions and denies all responsibility for the damage he caused to the building and his former neighbors.”
Said Joshua Stricoff, the attorney who brought the lawsuit on behalf of The Galleria The Independent he had nothing to add that wasn’t already in the complaint, and the allegations and photos of the destroyed unit included in court filings required no further explanation.
In an email sent after this article was published, a representative for Copperfield said, “This is a simple insurance claim. The photos included in the lawsuit do not reflect the current condition of the apartment. This is a court matter and will be dealt with in court.”
Copperfield, born David Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey, began performing at the age of 12 under the name “Davino, the Boy Magician”. In the years since, Copperfield has won 21 Emmy Awards, been named King of Magic by the American Magic Association, and was awarded the Living Legend Award by the Library of Congress.
He owns 11 private islands, and his face appears on postage stamps issued by nations including Guyana, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Copperfield was also recently accused of sexual assault, an allegation he strongly denied, and is linked to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Copperfield’s 15,000-square-foot quadriplex, which sits atop the building’s 54th floor and includes an indoor pool, consists of two condominiums that were originally joined together in the mid-1970s as one “dream home” by General Motors heir Stewart Rawlings Mott. In 1991, The Galleria found itself in the news when Eric Clapton’s 4-year-old son fell to his death from an open window on the 53rd floor.
Copperfield bought the unit in 1997 for $7.4 million, according to the complaint, which says the residence is so large, it is serviced by its own dedicated heating, ventilation, electrical and hot water systems. Because no other tenants use the equipment, the complaint says the common law bylaws place responsibility for maintaining and repairing it on the apartment owner.
Copperfield’s presence in the building was, from the beginning, “remarkable,” the complaint continues, calling it “far from model living.” After taking possession of the mansion, Copperfield “remarkably found the Unit packed with novelties such as fortune telling machines, classic arcade games and more outlandish items such as apparently ‘hazing devices’ used by different brothers during the time. century.”
“The problems that came to light with Copperfield later on – and which were well publicized – were a significant ongoing issue Page Six and in other places — for quite some time,” according to the complaint.
In 2009, he says, Copperfield’s private elevator incurred a violation with the New York City Department of Buildings, costing the condominium board an undisclosed amount in penalties and fines.
In 2015, Copperfield’s indoor pool exploded, which the complaint alleges was caused by the magician’s use of “illegal and ineffective plastic plumbing fixtures.” Water cascading down throughout the building, damaged elevators and apartments as far as 30 stories below, according to the complaint.
In 2017, Copperfield “again subjected the Condominium to litigation” over necessary window repairs he had neglected for years, the complaint alleges.
But, he says, the following year, things improved for surrealism.
In 2018, according to the complaint, “Copperfield abandoned the Unit, removing its furniture and fixtures.”
“Since then, Copperfield has allowed the Unit to develop into a state of utter disrepair,” the complaint states. “To say he trashed the Unit is an understatement. The pictures of the Unit are terrible and speak for themselves.”
When the condo board discovered the condition of Copperfield’s apartment, it hired an architectural firm to assess the damage, according to the complaint. The architects compiled their findings in a report on March 10 that the board says “confirmed [its] worst fear.”
Between extensive water damage that puts the concrete structure of the building itself at risk; interior water damage has encouraged mold and mildew growth so intense that it hides the underlying issues; leaking skylights and millwork; falling debris that posed an “active safety hazard” to anyone entering the space; pipes on the verge of bursting; inadequate gas leak protection; shoddy electrical work that is not up to code, “various levels of dirt” in the bathrooms, and “large quantities of unattended combustibles,” the architects’ report says, “the current conditions of the apartment are hazardous potential safety and health risks and should not remain within an occupied building.”
The condo board says it sent the architects’ report to Copperfield’s lawyer “to no avail.”
“In response, Copperfield was largely responsible for band-aid repairs to some of the cosmetic-only issues identified [the report],” the complaint says. “Some of the most significant and dangerous issues such as subsurface decay/damage, structural stability and mold growth remain unaddressed.”
According to the complaint, the board learned that when Copperfield moved out in 2018, he fired his house manager, housekeeper, and handyman, who maintained the unit’s special-purpose mechanics.
Since then, “unbeknownst to the board,” no one took care of the equipment, which led to a valve failure on December 27, 2023 in the Copperfield mechanical room that left building management “totally blind” . The complaint says flooding occurred throughout the various apartments, elevator shafts, hallways and beyond, requiring an estimated $3 million in repairs.
Copperfield and his insurer told the condo board that he and his staff were not aware of the mechanical room or their obligation to maintain it, a claim the complaint dismissed as fiction, as they were taking care of the duties that for many years before that.
The board does not yet know the full extent of the damage it says Copperfield caused, but believes the level of deterioration Copperfield allowed in its Unit is likely to have gone to the subsurface level.” He continues to find additional damages, and says in his complaint that he “reserves every right” to amend the filing to include “newly estimated repair costs resulting from Copperfield’s destruction of his Unit and wanton disregard for his duty of care to the Condominium, the terms of the Condominium’s governing document, and basic decency.”
In short, the complaint concludes, “Copperfield must be held accountable for his misconduct.”
The condo board is seeking a total of $7.5 million, as well as punitive damages and legal fees that have yet to be determined.
