By Max Abelson

January 28, 2009 | 4:30 p.m

The fact that the price of New York real estate is swiftly, dramatically, hilariously coming down isn't quite news. After all, Kathy Sloane's now-famous pronouncement that "Manhattan's finest co-op apartments... may have already lost a fourth of their value" was aired all the way back in September, and since then we've seen Lenny Kravitz, Julian Schnabel, Brooke Astor's estate, Warhol pal Jane Holzer, Remington razor heir Victor “Tory” Kiam III, department store mogul Tim Grumbacher, and ex-Bear Stearns bigwig Bruce Lisman all make serious price cuts.

But that downfall really hits home when something happens at the limestone-clad, marble-coated, walnut-paneled 740 Park Avenue, a building with its own bible-sized biography, and where a widow is currently asking "over $60 million" for her duplex. According to a source at Sotheby's, the 15-room, four-bedroom, fourth-floor duplex that belonged to the late June and Randolph L. Speight is about to be price-chopped from $35 million to $26 million.

The apartment is the kind of place with fireplaces in the first floor's 35-foot-long living room, the dining room, and the library (where, according to the above photo, there's also a wondrous lamp built out of what seems to be a woman's boot). That dining room leads to a butler's pantry, which leads to two staff rooms, a kitchen and a separate breakfast room. On the downside, the monthly maintenance fees will still be $9,274.

The duplex's next-door neighbor went on the market last year for $38 million, but it was recently listed as "temporarily off."