The New York Observer reports on a real estate transaction that seems to keep one loft always in the hands of someone in the art world. Here the Observer didn’t do their homework and they don’t seem to realize that Van de Weghe bought a 9.000 sq ft. townhouse last year to be his Upper East Side work and home base:

Christophe Van de Weghe, whose Upper East Side and Chelsea galleries are among the leading contemporary ones in Manhattan, recently sold his loft apartment at 77 Mercer Street for $2.8 million. Mr. Van de Weghe, who represents works by artists ranging from Andy Warhol to Gerhard Richter, bought the apartment from art dealer Stellan Holm for $1.6 million in February of 2004.

Six years later, the Belgian-born dealer du jour appears to have made a $1.2 million profit on the 1,947-square-foot, hardwood-floored Soho loft with “soaring ceilings.” The handsome cast-iron store and building between Broome and Spring streets was built and designed by architect Jesse W. Powers in the mid-1870s.

The fourth-floor apartment was dubbed “THE most elegant condominium in Soho!” by a Corcoran rental listing in the building, so it isn’t hard to see why Mr. Van de Weghe garnered such a high price for it. The buyer is an LLC called Real Mercer 77, a limited liability company first registered this past August care of the LLP Withers Bergman.

First, Holm; then, van den Weghe; now someone represented by art law firm Withers Bergman.

Contemporary Art Phenom Van de Weghe Unloads Mercer Loft for $2.8m (NY Observer)