UPPER EAST SIDE — The National Academy Museum's palatial digs have hit the market for $120 million.
The sale of its collection of buildings along Fifth Avenue and East 89th Street will help pull the museum out of financial crisis and support its efforts to find a new home, officials said.
The academy and museum are housed in two connected townhouses at 1083 Fifth Ave. and 3 E. 89th St. and a school building at 1083 Fifth Ave.
The property makes up roughly 54,000 square feet total, and features a sweeping grand staircase, a domed rotunda, high ceilings, several fireplaces and a view of Central park, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which is brokering the space.
Curbed New York first reported the listing.
Currently, the buildings, which are used as galleries, classroom and studio spaces, have 28 feet of frontage on Fifth Avenue and 40 feet on East 89th Street, the listing states, and there's a private, outdoor space between the structures.
The National Academy Museum — which has counted legends like Chuck Close and Frank Lloyd Wright as members — will close on June 1 until it finds a new home, museum officials said in a statement in March that announced its plan to sell.
The museum has been facing financial crisis in recent years, according to the New York Times. In 2008, it sold two major artworks and in 2014 it laid off eight people.
The money the museum gains from the sale will to go into a permanent, unrestricted endowment and generate the funds for a new facility, officials said.
"The Academy has occupied many homes across Manhattan since our founding in 1825 in service of our mission, while growing and protecting a significant collection of works by our historically important artist and architect members," said Maura Reilly, the museum's director. "This represents a hugely transformative moment in the history of the institution, as we build on the vision of the Academy founders, who saw the National Academy extending beyond that of a private institution to that of a vital and impactful arts organization."
The National Academy Museum did not respond to a request for further comment on Monday.
The three buildings offer a variety of uses including as a school, a community facility, condos or a single-family home, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
The buildings were combined as a private home over a century ago by architect Ogden Codman Jr. for art lover Archer Milton Huntington, who later donated them to the museum in the 1940s.
