Magician David Copperfield's Condo Is Magic Trick Gone Wrong: Lawsuit

MIDTOWN, NY – David Copperfield's latest trick? Turning a $7.4 million penthouse into a multimillion-dollar mess, according to the building’s condo board, which sued the magician on Tuesday.

The board of the tony Galleria Condominium, at 117 E. 57th Street just off Park Avenue, is seeking more than $2.5 million in damages and demanding that Copperfield restore his unit to “first-class condition.”

Copperfield's penthouse, which apparently has spectacular views of Central Park and Manhattan's Eastside, is said to be in terrible shape.

Copperfield moved out of the building in 2018, and the apartment has "devolved into a state of complete dilapidation,” in the intervening years, the suit reads. “To say that he trashed the unit is an understatement.”

When Copperfield left the Galleria, he “fired all of his staff that previously maintained the unit,” according to the suit. This neglect eventually resulted in a December 2023 flood which damaged other apartments as well as the building's elevator shafts, hallways, and exterior, the board says.

But one of the biggest problems noted in the suit began in 2015, when Copperfield’s rooftop pool burst because of "illegal and ineffective plumbing fixtures." That incident caused flooding which damaged units “as far as 30 stories below.”

An architect hired by the board to assess Copperfield’s apartment “confirmed the board’s worst fears,” including “damage to the concrete structure of the building” and mold and mildew that is so “severe” in some areas that it “conceals underlying conditions.”

These underlying conditions are not specified.

The lawsuit also says that when Copperfield left the apartment, he abandoned a smorgasbord of magical paraphernalia, including "fortune-telling machines and arcade games.” Surprisingly, the suit implies he may also be a connoisseur of “more bizarre items like ‘hazing devices’ apparently used by various fraternities during the turn of the century.”

Copperfield's representative told the New York Post that the suit is merely “a simple insurance claim," and further, that "the photographs included in the lawsuit don’t reflect the current state of the apartment."

A sprawling 50th floor apartment in the Galleria is currently for rent for $45,000 a month. Prefer to buy? A 21st story two-bedroom will set you back about $2 million. That unit has been on the market for more than a year.

Earlier this year, 16 women accused Copperfield of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior. He has denied the allegations.