In 2007 Gotham Book Mart shut its doors after 87 years of being in business, and owner Andreas Brown held a court-mandated auction, selling the entire contents of the shop for $400K (though it was reportedly worth several million). CityRoom is reporting that now, nearly two years later, "about 200,000 items have been donated to the University of Pennsylvania" by an anonymous donor (the same who purchased the entire contents of the store's inventory). The lot includes “proofs, advance copies, pamphlets, photographs, posters, reference works, catalogs, broadsides, prints and postcards,” as well as books "from the personal libraries of Truman Capote and Anaïs Nin," and signed items from Arthur Miller, John Updike, Woody Allen and Tennessee Williams (who was a clerk at the store at one point). The site wonders if Leonard A. Lauder, former chairman of Estée Lauder, previous benefactor of the bookstore, and graduate of Penn (class of 1954) was the donor. more ›

After spending years of his life and over four million of his dollars to impose term limits on NYC politicians, cosmetics heir Ron Lauder has had a sudden change of heart, giving a major boost to Bloomberg's plans to run for a third term as mayor. As late as last Friday, Lauder's organization, New Yorkers for Term Limits, was fighting any change to the city's term limit laws. Now Lauder says the financial crisis convinced him there should be a one-time-only term limits change to accommodate Bloomberg. The Daily News marvels at his sudden reversal, and looks suspiciously in the direction of elite insider Howard Rubenstein, who brought the two billionaires together for a meeting last week. In a New Yorker story last year, Lauder's older brother Leonard said Rubenstein is "like an absolutely one hundred per cent legitimate godfather." more ›

Following the announcement of a $100 million donation for the New York Public Library, The Whitney has just announced their own sugar daddy: Leonard A. Lauder. more ›