The World’s Most Expensive Dollhouse Will Be On Show at Columbus Circle This Month

If you think Manhattan condos are pricey, feast your eyes on the world’s most expensive dollhouse! Valued at $8.5 million, The Astolat Dollhouse Castle is a 29-room micro-mansion that’s been is filled to the brim with 10,000 painstakingly crafted miniatures that include “elaborate furniture, oil paintings, mirrors, fireplaces, gold miniature jewelry, rare-mini books more than 100 years old, fine rugs, fabrics, and pieces made of and silver and gold.” Sound too absurd to be true? Well, you can check out this pricey and petite pad up close and personal starting this month. The Shops of Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center (TWC) will be showing the dollhouse for the first time ever since it was built in the 1980s.

Miniature artist Elaine Diehl spent over 13 years designing and crafting every inch of the home, drawing inspiration from a Victorian ballad. According to the dollhouse’s official site, many of the miniatures and furniture were more expensive to create than what their full size counterparts would have cost to build. The press release adds that “Of course, like most Manhattan apartments, it has seven levels, stairways, hallways, a basement, a wine cellar, a kitchen and an armory. There are formal rooms, a library, a music room, a grand ballroom and a bar, and that’s before you get to the Wizard’s tower on the top level. Naturally, it’s fully wired and plumbed.”

If you’re interested viewing the dollhouse, it will be on display for free November 12 through December 8 on the second floor mezzanine of the TWC mall. They’re also accepting donations, which will go to benefit children’s charities. The public debut of the house will coincide with the TWC’s lighting of its “Holiday Under the Stars,” an exhibit showcasing 12 illuminated 14-foot stars that will hang from the 150-foot Great Room overlooking Central Park.

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