Madonna's reaction was a bit more meditative when she came to look at this co-op apartment (in a townhouse!), which has just opened up again at 828 Fifth Avenue, for $9,975,000.

"The story is that when Madonna was considering buying the apartment, she lay down on the floor of the former ballroom," wrote architectural historian John Tauranac, about six years back in the New York Times. "For 15 minutes or so, she simply gazed upon the ceiling."

"The style is unabashedly Louis XV and about as close to Versailles as residential New York has to offer," he wrote.

But Madonna opted instead for a personal renovation, trading her nasal Michigan accent for an International Accent and moving to England.

The mansion--built in 1896 for coal magnate Edward J. Berwind--has housed several celebrity tenants, including fashion designer Adolfo, television producer Norman Lear, and Cher.

The parlour floor apartment is listed with luxury specialist Paula Del Nunzio at Brown Harris Stevens.

- Michael Calderone