Essayist David Sedaris has expanded his New York City residence to accommodate his growing art collection, purchasing an additional penthouse apartment above his original Upper East Side home. The author, who relocated to the city in 2019 after two decades in Europe, initially chose the neighborhood for its relative quiet compared to areas like SoHo and Greenwich Village, where he previously lived and found the noise disruptive.
Sedaris and his husband, Hugh Hamrick, bought the initial 2,500-square-foot apartment near Central Park for $2.5 million. The couple sought a spacious setting to display their art, which includes two Picasso paintings among other works by artists such as Philip Guston, Georg Baselitz, Paul Klee, and Günther Förg. In 2020, they acquired the penthouse above their unit, also for $2.5 million, featuring multiple terraces with views of the city skyline and a larger kitchen where they often dine.
The author’s workspace reflects his distinct sensibility, designed to resemble a Park Avenue therapist’s office complete with a rug marked “Trouble,” where Sedaris prefers visitors to lie down rather than furnish the room with a sofa. Sedaris dedicates five to six hours daily to writing, including holidays, drawing inspiration from personal relationships and observations. His essays have appeared regularly in The New Yorker since 1995, bolstering his reputation as a prolific and acclaimed satirist.
The living spaces incorporate significant artistic elements, including a study wall that displays a 1950 Franz Kline painting, “Chief,” the full version of which is held at the Museum of Modern Art and valued at approximately $40 million. A Kawai baby grand piano, chosen to replace an older upright model, convinced Hamrick to purchase the penthouse, as he wanted space to practice piano without Sedaris’s critique. The couple’s art collection began in earnest in the early 2000s, with their first Picasso, “Verre et Paquet de Cigarettes,” acquired in 2015. Sedaris recounted the tax implications of the purchase, noting that the cost of the tax equated roughly to the purchase price of their initial apartment on the Upper East Side.
Sedaris and Hamrick met in 1990 and have been legally married for a decade, though Sedaris describes himself more modestly as a “boyfriend.” Beyond their New York properties, they own homes in Paris, London, the English countryside, and two in North Carolina.
The author remains personally engaged with his audience, responding to the majority of fan mail, though he declines correspondence from detractors. His second office contains an unusual collection of 1850s French medical paintings depicting diseases of the eye, which he gifted Hamrick for his birthday this year. The couple’s art-filled penthouse also includes a Tony Matelli sculpture gifted by Sedaris’s sister, Amy, as well as a 17th-century bust of Jesus by Thomas Schwanthaler, prized by Sedaris for its emotional depth despite his own ambivalence toward religious imagery.
Hamrick recently traveled to London to attend to their other properties, leaving Sedaris at their Upper East Side home, where he continues to balance a life of literary productivity, art collecting, and international travel.