Sunday, April 8, 2018

The Man Who Died in Trump Tower. Andy Warhol's Friend.

The man who died in Trump Tower was riddled with debt and disease. He comes from a wealthy family who have appeared to abandon him. His apartment and art assets are worth several times the debt secured against them. He suffered from debilitating medical problems that made it difficult for him to function.
Todd Brassner, 67, who was in apartment 50C on the 50th floor of Trump Tower, in Manhattan, died in the hospital after the unit was engulfed by the blaze. Brassner was an art collector/dealer who had purchased his 50th-floor unit in 1996 and filed bankruptcy in 2015. He was friends with Andy Warhol, the openly gay famous artist, and Brassner’s name appears multiple times in “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” the dictated autobiography that was published two years after his death at age 58 in 1987. Brassner sold a variety of Warhol prints, including a 1967 self-portrait that netting a $601,000 price tag in 2007. Brassner's large collection also once included a 1978 Marilyn Monroe print by Warhol, dedicated "to Todd."
Todd Brassner purchased his high-rise apartment back in 1996. Brassner’s family had supported him financially for years, but debt and failing health plagued him in recent years. He has bought and sold art his entire adult life. His family is wealthy. Until the end of 2014, his family helped him pursue this passion. But their support was limited. In 2015, he filed bankruptcy. The bankruptcy filing noted that for the past few years he has been plagued with debilitating medical problems that have made it difficult for him to function.
Brassner’s apartment and art collection turned out to be valuable nest eggs, the court filing showed: “The apartment is worth multiples of the secured debt against it.’’ It added his father had left Brassner a “substantial inheritance.’’ In the bankruptcy filing it says the apartment he lived is worth $2.5 million.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said about the fire: 'It's a well-built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.' Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City highrises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983.
Thoughts? I have a few.

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