Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell

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Nicolas Salgo was a Hungarian immigrant financier, art collector and developer who built the Watergate complex in Washington and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to return to Budapest as a US Ambassador.

He died at age 90 in 2005.

Now, following the death of his wife, Josseline de Ferron Salgo, his estate has listed his duplex penthouse at 4 E. 72nd St. for $13.99 million — asking that the purchase be made in all cash.

In 1987, as ambassador to Hungary, Salgo privately paid for an Imre Varga sculpture to honor Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps.

Salgo also negotiated with the Soviets about the fate of the US Embassy building in Moscow, which had been riddled with Soviet bugs, and toured other Soviet satellite countries to develop sites for new US embassies, according to the Washington Post.

In 1992, Salgo received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal award. This is the first time the apartment has been on the market in almost 50 years, notes the listing.

The 4-bedroom, 5½-co-op boasts a 30-foot light-filled living room with high ceilings and two woodburning fireplaces. There’s also a terrace, and a library off the living room with its own fireplace and a wet bar. The penthouse also features a formal dining room, an additional outdoor area, a windowed eat-in kitchen and lots of closet space.

The top floor features a “grand salon” with 13-foot ceilings, a fireplace and a wraparound terrace. Two large basement storage bins come with the unit.

The apartment is 3,818 square feet with 4,780 square feet of exterior space, according to Douglas Elliman listing brokers Ann Cutbill Lenane and Laurence P. Mitchell.

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