Sharon Baum Bids Farewell to Her Vespa, Returns to Rolls-Royce

Back in February 2008, when the doyenne real estate broker Sharon Baum announced that she'd no longer be driving a hunter green Rolls-Royce Silver Spur--upholstered in camel-colored leather, and blessed with her famous "SOLD 1" custom license plate--it was an early sign that the Upper East Side's long era of sparkly glitz was ending.

Ms. Baum, who dated Michael Bloomberg after Harvard Business School, sold a record $40 million townhouse, and is known for wearing a diamond brooch that matches her Rolls' plate, said at the time that she'd be using a Vespa instead.

The scooter experiment did not end well.

"My husband of 40 years," she said last week, "whom I love more than the whole wide world, was riding it and had an accident." He was driving in Greenwich, Conn., when a car stopped short in front of him, she explained. "Broke his leg in three places. Was all banged up. Bleeding. I was not on the Vespa with him, thank god, because I usually ride with him."

Mr. Baum was on crouches for their son's wedding in Los Angeles.

"We're not riding any more two-wheeled vehicles," said the broker, who turns 70 in January. "As much as we hated to, because it was so attractive and had almost no miles, a man came this very morning and paid cash and took the Vespa away. I got an email from my husband: 'So sad the Vespa is gone,' with a little cry figure."

What will she drive now? "I didn't get rid of the Rolls, because the sentiment was so strong, the emails that I got and everything, saying that I should keep the Rolls. So, no, I still have the Rolls."

It would be nice if that was a sign of the times for New York in general: A proud return to once-hidden opulence! But it's not. In the past month, Julian Schnabel's triplex penthouse sold for $10.5 million instead of $32 million, Walt Disney's grandniece lost $3.55 million on a West End Avenue deal, and the $64 million Sloane Mansion was re-listed for $39 million.

mabelson@observer.com