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• The World's Richest Man's New Mansion 

On Thursday Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, who is worth $53.5 billion, bought the Duke-Semans mansion, a beaux-arts townhouse directly across from the Met, for $44 million, public records show. . . .

The mansion's seller, Tamir Sapir, famously ascended from taxi driver to billionaire by trading in oil and then investing in real estate. He bought the property from the descendants of its original owner, tobacco mogul Benjamin N. Duke, in 2006, paying $40 million. . . .

The Duke-Semans is one of a kind. Location is critical in ultra-high end Manhattan real estate, and the Duke-Semans has a great one: The corner of Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, on New York's vaunted "Museum Mile." . . .

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