Richard Drew/Associated Press15 Central Park West

In any other week, in any other city, in any other building, the sale of a three-bedroom apartment for $24 million — the most expensive transaction of the week, according to city records — would not go unnoticed.

But in the same week, in this city, the reported sale of a penthouse in the same building, 15 Central Park West, for a record-shattering $88 million, to the 22-year-old daughter of a Russian oligarch, dwarfed the first deal and made all others seem rather ho-hum.

The 6,774-square-foot apartment, which fronts on Central Park, was being sold by the financier Sanford I. Weill and his wife, Joan, who paid $43.7 million for it in 2007.

The sale is still in contract, and the records of the transaction have not been made public, but if completed it will become the most expensive New York apartment deal ever, crushing the $53 million paid by the investor Christopher Flowers for the town house at 4 East 75th Street.

Word recently leaked out that Mr. Weill and his broker, Kyle W. Blackmon of Brown Harris Stevens, had found a buyer willing to pay full price. This week, Forbes confirmed that the buyer was Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the daughter of a Russian billionaire, Dmitriy Rybolovlev, obtaining a statement from her representatives.

“Ms. Rybolovleva is currently studying at a U.S. university,” the statement read. “She plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York. Ms. Rybolovleva was born in Russia, is a resident of Monaco, and has resided in Monaco and Switzerland for the past 15 years.”

Ms. Rybolovleva’s father, whose worth is put at $9.5 billion and who is ranked by Forbes as the world’s 93rd-richest person, began to build his fortune in the early 1990s, in the chaotic days after the fall of the Soviet Union. He bought interests in industrial companies, eventually controlling one of the country’s largest potash fertilizer businesses.  Like other oligarchs, he fell afoul of the powers that be; in 1996 he was accused in the murder of a businessman and spent nearly a year in prison. Ultimately he was acquitted for lack of evidence.

This is not Mr. Rybolovlev’s first foray into mammoth real estate deals in America. In 2008 he paid nearly $100 million for Maison de L’Amitié,Donald Trump’s 33,000-square-foot estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

The sale of the other apartment at 15 Central Park West, on the 31st floor, attracted little notice, though it further solidified the building’s reputation as a property that can do no wrong.

George Logothetis, a shipping magnate, and his wife, Nitzia, had owned the apartment, which they bought for $12.93 million in 2008. The new owner bought it under the name of a company called Mac Holdings, according to city records.

Representatives for Mr. Weill declined to comment on his sale. But when he first put the property on the market, he said he planned to donate sale proceeds to charity. No word yet on who the recipient is, but it seems this will be a very nice holiday for at least one lucky daughter of a Russian billionaire and whatever charity gets the nod from Mr. Weill.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

Tags: Apartment for Sale, Buy Home Today

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