The heiress in 1989. (New York Magazine)

The problem with getting what you want is that sometimes, once you have it, you don't want it anymore. The Observer has learned that Libet Johnson is looking to offload the Vanderbilt Mansion, the stately neo-Georgian mansion at 16 East 69th Street that she spent $48 million to buy scarcely more than a year ago.

Sources tell us that Ms. Johnson has been quietly shopping the townhouse around, hoping to sell for a price in the mid-$50 million range. Which does not come as a huge surprise—the heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the sister of NY Jets Owner and Romney bundler Woody Johnson has a reputation for falling in, and out, of love with extravagant real estate. She bought the townhouse, sans broker, from her friend and fellow heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and Ms. Barnett's husband, the founder of beauty.com. What's a $48 million townhouse between friends?

The Vanderbilt Mansion.

So what new gem caught the heiress's avaricious eye? Sources familiar with the matter have told us that Ms. Johnson fell hard for Huguette Clark's eighth-floor apartments at 907 Fifth Avenue, but lost the late copper heiresses' spread to private equity chief Frederick Iseman. The Central Park-facing apartment and a few rooms of the smaller apartment are currently in contract for $22.5 million. Mr. Iseman, the CEO and chairman of CI Capital Partners, is still awaiting board approval. And you know how those can go, so no doubt Ms. Johnson has her fingers crossed.

One broker expressed disbelief that Ms. Johnson would want an apartment in 907 Fifth—which the broker sniffed was not the kind of A-type building the heiress usually goes for—but we suppose Ms. Johnson felt a kind of kinship with Clark  and her estate, even if the socialite Johnson and the reclusive Clark would appear to have little in common other than their vast family fortunes. More likely, Ms. Johnson was just looking for something new to occupy her time.

As far as the Clark apartments go, the ranks of the rebuffed grow more illustrious by the day—Ms. Johnson joins Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, whose $31.5 million bid for all of both apartments in May was reportedly rebuffed by the board.

Will Ms. Johnson be able to sell the Vanderbilt mansion and make a little money in the process? The Stanford White mansion at 973 Fifth Avenue—a gilded age truffle of a townhouse—sold $42 million in June, and it required major refurbishment. But before Ms. Johnson swept in last May, the home had been lingering on the market for some time at $48 million. And while brokers say that the 1881 home and its Peter Marino-designed interiors are lovely, they note that it's rather dark inside and the brick facade less elegant than that some of the city's top limestone townhouses.

At the time of the sale, it ranked as the most expensive deals since the recession hit and the most expensive townhouse since J. Christopher Flowers set the previous record with his purchase of the Harkness Mansion for $53 million in 2006. Last year, Larry Gagosian scooped up the place for $36.5 million.

And it's not even the only townhouse that Ms. Johnson, or at least her family, is trying to sell. A five-story West Village townhouse at 85 Perry Street, owned by Falconer LLC., a oft-used screen for Libet and her close kin, has been publicly listed since May with Stribling's Pamela D'Arc. Falconer is apparently extremely eager to be rid of the townhouse, dropping the $13 million ask to a mere $9.96 million this August.

Surely this is precisely the kind of situation where one's rich friends might come to the rescue and buy at least one of Ms. Johnson's real estate holdings?

kvelsey@observer.com

Jonathan Galassi, publisher and president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux is leaving behind the bookish borough of Brooklyn for this sunny, Greenwich Village co-op.

The publisher and poet sold his breathtakingly beautiful Carroll Gardens townhouse for $2.3 million in February after divorcing from his wife Susan Grace Galassi, a curator at the Frick, at the end of 2011.

Mr. Galassi paid $1.7 million for the two-bedroom bachelor pad, according to city records, listed for $1.75 with Corcoran broker Paula Manikowski.

The apartment, while decorated in a manner befitting its former occupant, Annabel Teal, the young Johnson & Johnson heiress (lavender walls, a custom-made vanity and what appear to customized closets perfect for storing party frocks), is a bright, airy space.

The apartment boasts inlaid herringbone floors, original moldings, a fireplace and a marble-floored bathroom, according to the listing. There's  also an impressive kitchen with lots of high-end appliances and fixtures and a wine cooler (an essential for those hosting literary gatherings).

Not one to wallow in heartbreak, Mr. Galassi has plenty of projects to keep him busy these days. Besides running a huge publishing house, he's also trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy and a translator of Italian poetry. He just recently published a book of his own poetry.

As for Annabel Teal, the deed shows that she's moved on to a palatial, family-owned 48th-floor condo in the Trump Tower. No longer on the market, the tiger-carpeted apartment was most recently listed at $24 million.

And if she tires of the Trump Tower, there's always her mom, Libet Johnson's place—in one of the Vanderbilt mansions.

kvelsey@observer.com

The Johnson family wishes to thank everyone who has expressed condolences and support during this trying time. Your thoughts and prayers are deeply appreciated.

The family has arranged for Casey to be flown back east to her final resting place. There will be a private funeral service later this week for the immediate family.

The family asks for a measure of privacy over the next several days as they mourn their loss. No other information will be released at this time.

For the many who have asked what they can do to honor Casey's memory, we ask simply that you consider making a donation to the Casey Johnson Memorial at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (www.jdrf.org). Casey struggled throughout her life fighting this disease, and she would want to see all of us continue that fight on her behalf.

After telling fashion designer Valentino Garavani the fit just wasn't right, the finicky co-op board at 820 Fifth Avenue has pre-approved a new owner for Nancy Richardson's $16 million fifth-floor apartment-and the apartment on the fourth floor, for that matter. According to real estate sources, the buyer is Elizabeth Johnson, of the Johnson & Johnson Johnsons, who goes by "Libbet" and had been apartment-shopping for several years. She will pay $27 million for the two apartments. Ms. Richardson's lawyer, Raoul Felder, didn't return calls. Ms. Johnson could not be reached for comment.

Ms. Johnson currently lives in a duplex at the River House on East 52nd Street, which was on the market for $12 million in 1996 but was taken off at the beginning of last year. Soon, she'll have one of the biggest apartments in the city. Not having sold her current apartment didn't deter her. "Any woman who can pay $27 million for an apartment in that building," which reportedly requires that a potential buyer prove worth at least 20 times the purchase value, "isn't going to be inhibited by the fact she hasn't sold her $12 million shack," said one broker.

The 7,000-square-foot apartment on the fourth floor is being sold by an estate. According to a witness, "It hadn't really been touched by the woman who had inherited it from her mother," who was the apartment's original owner (the building was built in 1916). Ms. Richardson's apartment (a divorce trophy from financier Frank Richardson) is exactly the same size. Both sellers were represented by MacRae Parker at Brown Harris Stevens. The buyer got something of a discount, since the fourth floor had been for sale for $13.5 million. Each apartment has five bedrooms and carries a maintenance fee of about $12,500 a month.

Even the couple of million dollars slashed off the price didn't justify the move to some real estate observers. "Someone paid $27 million to not clear the trees?" asked one incredulous broker who insisted that in the summer, only the master bedroom on the fifth floor has a consistent view over the park. "Plus they'll have to put in $3 million to renovate." And according to a source familiar with the building, a recent board meeting tightened up the summer-only work requirement to the point where you "can't even pick up a paintbrush" while the neighbors are home.

For all the building's swell attributes-its private driveway and mini-parking lot out back, its snub of Ronald Perelman, the fact that its lights will never go out because it has its own generator-"these are not grand apartments," said one broker, who described them as "great family apartments," but added, "Of course, grand is a relative thing."

Indeed. The building's airtight tenant roster includes gallery owner William Acquavella (who bought the 11th floor in 1993 for $9.8 million), Warner Brothers chief executive Terry Semel (he paid $12.25 million for the seventh floor in 1996) and socialite Jayne Wrightsman.

If and when Ms. Johnson's duplex at River House, numbers 18 and 19C, goes back on the market, bear in mind that it is 6,900 square feet and has seven bedrooms, wood-burning fireplaces in the living and dining rooms, and two terraces.

As for Ms. Richardson, she's been spotted examining lofts downtown and is said to be putting her place out in Sag Harbor, known as Napier House, on the market, asking $1.3 million. According to Hamptons real estate sources, the house was once owned by President Chester A. Arthur (before spending some time as a funeral parlor) and was the most expensive home ever in Sag Harbor when Ms. Richardson paid $1.025 million for it a year ago, even though she's never lived there. If you're interested, a local broker said it's "the only house in town with a proper widow's walk."

After the much publicized search for a new owner for Ms. Richardson's apartment, the co-op is said to be "very happy" to have the Band-Aid heiress, no questions asked.

610 Park Avenue

Four-bed, five-bath, 4,041-square-foot prewar condo.

Asking: $6.78 million. Selling: $6.78 million.

Charges: $3,075. Taxes: $4,683.

Time on the market: four weeks.

IF HE CAN'T LIVE THERE, TRUMP CAN AT LEAST SELL ON PARK AVENUE There goes Donald Trump again, promising he's been getting an "overall average" sales price of $1,100 per square foot. This time, the promise came from his sales manager Louise Sunshine, whose current project is the Mayfair House, best known as the former address of Le Cirque when it was a reasonable place to dine. More surprising than the sales price is that anything Trump could be described this way: "a discreet sanctuary for the privileged … in stately good taste without demanding the attention of the public." The 70 apartments being developed by Mr. Trump and Colony Capital do their best to mimic prewar layouts and details-herringbone-patterned wood floors, coffered ceilings and solid wood doors "accented with polished brass hardware." This unit, 15A, is one of the building's largest apartments, on the Park Avenue end of the building. It has a library, den, formal dining room, granite eat-in kitchen, sitting room off the master bedroom, maid's room and two wood-burning fireplaces. What else is Mr. Trump willing to offer? Well, he's not shy about throwing around the name of chef Daniel Boulud, who will return to the former Le Cirque space, where he was once a chef, and open Restaurant Daniel. You would think Mr. Boulud plans to deliver breakfast every morning: "610 Park Avenue is the only residential condominium in New York to offer the services of a four-star chef," read the promotional materials, which go on to indicate that the restaurant might be available for catering. So who's biting? "We've had buyers from pretty much every major building on Fifth and Park," said Ms. Sunshine, mentioning 740 and 720 Park Avenue as two of the city's most exclusive co-op buildings that are being vacated for 610, a condo. This apartment was purchased as a secondary home by a man who splits his time between Europe and New York. He took advantage of the high prices that nearby co-ops are fetching, and sold his. Broker: Sunshine Group Ltd.