A house on the Eastern End of Long Island that has been referred to as the “most Hamptons house in the Hamptons,” owned by Canadian businesswoman Louise Blouin and called “La Dune,” is set to hit the auction block early next year.
News of the sale of the lavish property, which Blouin has sought up to $150 million for in previous listings, according to reports, comes after a string of attempts to save it, including multiple bankruptcy filings.
Now, it will go to the highest bidder. It will be the only piece of real estate offered at bidding that opens on January 10 and culminates on January 24 at Sotheby’s inaugural “Visions of America” event on the Upper East Side. Chad Roffers, CEO of Concierge Auctions, told the New York Post that this would mark the “first time” real estate would be auctioned alongside art at Sotheby’s. We hear none of the art on offer is from Blouin’s collection.
“Interested parties have the ability to make an offer on the homes separately or collectively at the ‘No Reserve’ auction, which will sell to the highest bidder(s),” according to a statement from Concierge Auctions, which is offering the dual-home property in partnership with Harald Grant of Sotheby’s International Realty, Tim Davis of The Corcoran Group, and Cody Vichinsky, president and founding partner of Bespoke Real Estate.
La Dune on Gin Lane in Southampton. Image courtesy Concierge Auctions / Gavin Zeigler.
Blouin was once one of the most visible figures in the world of art media, purchasing famous titles Modern Painters and Art + Auction and launching the website Artinfo.com in the 2000s. However, she became infamous for not paying writers, for changing the name of her titles to Blouin Modern Painters and Blouin Art + Auction, and, according to reports, for outsourcing art coverage to writers based in India to save money. As her media ambitions crashed in the 2010s, she became something of industry punchline.
Though Blouin herself is not publicly identified as the most recent owner of La Dune, it is widely known that she acquired it for $13.5 million in the 1990s, according to the New York Post, which first flagged the sale.
La Dune is spread over four acres, on famed Gin Lane (366 and 376 Gin Lane), and has 400 feet of oceanfront space. The property has two homes—a traditional shingle-styled residence from 1892, and another designed by French architect François Catroux, that was built in 2001. The compound also boasts two pools and a sunken tennis court. An earlier rental listing for the property, which no longer contains the asking rental price, specifies in caps: “RENTAL IS FOR EITHER RESIDENCE—NOT BOTH.”
“The interiors are neutral with a shot of human growth hormone: jute everywhere,” an earlier Curbed report detailed. “The private theater, instead of standard seating, features a vaguely menacing number of white couches. In fact, I counted at least 31 white couches and sofas.” (According to a 2005 Daily Mail story about Blouin’s love affair with Prince Andrew, the the now-disgraced Duke of York once watched the Lord of the Rings saga in La Dune’s theater.)
An interior view of La Dune. La Dune on Gin Lane in Southampton. Image courtesy Concierge Auctions / Gavin Zeigler.
“The title will be free and clear,” Roffers told the Post. According to a report this past August, the road to selling the Southampton estate has been “marked by close calls.”
Back in spring 2022, the Canadian art magazine publisher “narrowly avoided foreclosure by sticking 366 Gin Lane, one of the compound’s two waterfront homes, into bankruptcy court just two days ahead of a scheduled auction.”
Roffers said bidders will be vetted and will need to put up $500,000 as deposits.