Joan Rivers' palatial 'Marie Antoinette' penthouse hits market

Joan Rivers' palatial 'Marie Antoinette' penthouse hits market

It's a little piece of Versailles in New York City--fitting for the Queen of Comedy.

The late, great comedian Joan Rivers' Upper East Side penthouse condo just went on the market for a whopping $28 million and really does take a page out of Louis XIV's decorating book: "Louis XIV meets Fred and Ginger" is how she described it to the New York Times.

"This is how Marie Antoinette would have lived, if she had the money," she also famously quipped.

Rivers, who posthumously won her first Grammy Award on Sunday (see the video below), decorated her 5,100-square-foot home herself, covering it with plush pink and cream fabrics, gilded gold finishes, ornate chandeliers, grand columns and 23-foot ceilings painted with puffy white clouds.

It's somehow not what you'd expect and everything you'd expect from Rivers.

The penthouse takes up the top three floors of a seven-story Gilded Age mansion, built in 1903 and converted to condos in the 1930s.

The home includes four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, a separate two-bedroom guest apartment with living room and kitchen, and two terraces--one overlooking Central Park, naturally.

Though the stars of the space are the ornate entertaining rooms -- the Daily Mail reports they can accommodate up to 125 people -- Rivers spent most of her time in a smaller office. Her workspace contains a cheetah-spotted rug and small pillows embroidered with kitschy phrases like "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first" and Joan's own "Don't expect praise without envy--until you're dead."

Fans left tributes to Joan Rivers outside the Upper East Side apartment when she died in September 2014.
Fans left tributes to Joan Rivers outside the Upper East Side apartment when she died in September 2014.

Rivers was rumored to be rather protective of the property, where she was president of the co-op board for many years. She apparently had a big feud with neighbor Elizabeth Hazan, who fell behind on $220,000 of maintenance fees, causing Hazan to complain to "Inside Edition" that Rivers spit on her face, called her names, told the doormen to shut off her electricity and even poured glue into her door locks to keep her out. Rivers also allegedly quashed Italian politician Susanna Agnelli's bid to purchase a second apartment in the 12-unit building.

Rivers lived there until her death in September. Daughter Melissa Rivers, who is managing her late mother's estates, is selling the property.

Joan Rivers had actually been trying to dump the palace for years, but it didn't sell. She put it on the market in 2009 for $25 million, then again in 2012 and 2013, for $29.5 million. ("This is to placate my business manager," she told the Times. Buyers "have to come in with a bag full of money, otherwise we're not going to do it.") She bought it in 1988.

Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of Joan Rivers' palatial penthouse, on the market for $28 million.