Libbie Mugrabi believes she will keep her Southampton mansion despite a court order putting the property up for auction.
The socialite said she is working to refinance the home and obtain another loan before the scheduled August 28 sale. The property became part of a debt dispute involving a $3.5 million loan that Mugrabi took out against the house.
Libbie Mugrabi says she expects to keep her Southampton home
According to Page Six, Mugrabi disputed the idea that the property would ultimately go to auction.
“There is not a court-ordered sale. [That’s] fake news. We agreed to settle and I need a little more time as I fired my broker,” she said.
However, the auction remained scheduled for 11 a.m. on August 28 at Southampton Town Hall as of Thursday afternoon. Mugrabi’s attorneys planned to appear in court one day earlier to request additional time for her to repay the debt.
Mugrabi said refinancing could allow her to resolve the situation without losing the property.
“I’m in the process of refinancing… I’m in the middle of doing a loan… I can’t sell it,” she said. “My brokers are no good.”
The Southampton mansion stayed with Mugrabi following her divorce from billionaire art dealer David Mugrabi, which they finalized in 2020. The former couple married in 2004.
Mugrabi placed the home on the market for $25 million in May. She later reduced the asking price to $19 million, but the property did not sell. A court ordered the auction the following month, with bidding set to begin at $11 million.
Despite that order, Mugrabi said she remained confident about her chances of keeping the house.
“I’m not afraid. I’m a business woman. I did a bad business deal and that’s it. This media circus has destroyed the sale of my house… I’m hoping for justice in the court,” she said.
The mansion also sits at the center of another legal dispute. Artist and critic Anthony Haden-Guest sued Mugrabi in May, alleging that she had kept nearly 100 of his cartoons at the property despite his requests for their return. Mugrabi has called that lawsuit “bogus.”
She is separately involved in a dispute with a lender over a 1982 Basquiat painting that served as collateral for another loan.
Originally reported by Ashna Gaur on RealityTea.
