Victor Shafferman (November 8, 1941 – October 19, 2009) was a real estate investor.
Early life
Shafferman was born in Israel, where his father was Ben Shafferman, a wealthy diamond merchant who moved to Canada after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. He would claim that he was born in
Switzerland and that his family owned the
CIBA-Geigy
Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...
pharmaceutical company.
He attended
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
, in Montreal, Quebec.
Maison Joseph Lamoureux

Shafferman's family home in Montreal was the Maison Joseph Lamoureux at 143 chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine. Before moving to 143 St Catherine Road the family lived at 711 Stuart Avenue. Ben Shafferman bought the Maison Lamoureux in 1963. His son Victor Shafferman lived there while studying at McGill University, and inherited it at the death of his mother in 2000. At Shafferman's death in 2009, his spouse sold all the couple's residences, including the Maison Lamoureux. This residence known as Maison Joseph Lamoureux, who built it in 1898, is the work of the architect
Joseph-Arthur Godin. Godin left in Montreal a diverse architectural heritage. He is also the architect of the
Académie Querbes, churches and theaters like
Théâtre La Tulipe (the former Théâtre des Variétés) and the
Joseph-Arthur Godin House (today the Hôtel Godin, corner Sherbrooke and Saint-Laurent).
973 Fifth Avenue

Victor Shafferman owned 973 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, designed by architectural firm
McKim, Mead & White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), ...
(together with nearby
Payne Whitney House
The Payne Whitney House is a historic building at 972 Fifth Avenue, south of 79th Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed in the High Italian Renaissance style by architect Stanford White of the firm M ...
). The house was built by Henry Cook in 1902, who owned the entire block from 78th to 79th Streets. He left it to his daughter who sold it to Joseph Feder. In 1948 it was sold to
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...
and used as a training center. In 1978 it was bought by Shafferman for $600,000 (the equivalent of $2,333,000 in 2017 dollars). It was sold in 2012 for $42 million.
Blairsden

In the early 2000s Shafferman started a relationship with an architectural student, a man much younger than him. Around the same time he bought
Blairsden, a mansion located at
Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, designed by architectural firm
Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture firms. Located in New York City ...
. The house was built in 1807 by investment banker
C. Ledyard Blair and in 1950 sold to the
Sisters of St. John the Baptist
The Sisters of St. John the Baptist (Baptistines) are a Roman Catholic female religious institute, founded in Angri, Italy in 1878, by Alfonso Maria Fusco.
History
Shortly before he was ordained in 1863, Alfonso Maria Fusco dreamt that he was ...
. The sisters sold it in 2002 to the Foundation for Classical Architecture owned by Shafferman. Shafferman and his partner started the restoration of the mansion, but Shafferman died before restoration was complete and the mansion was later sold in 2012 for $4.5 million.
The Diamond District
Shafferman was the longtime owner of two buildings, 15 West 47th Street and 22 West 48th Street, in what is called the
Diamond District. They were put on the market in 2012 for an asking price of $115 million.
Personal life
Shafferman moved in the New York High Society. In 1986 he was the date of fashion designer
Mary McFadden when she attended the 35th Annual April In Paris Ball at the Waldorf Hotel.
When in 2002
Princess Michael of Kent
Princess Michael of Kent (born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945) is a member of the British royal family of German, Austrian, Czech and Hungarian descent. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, ...
was in New York to lecture at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
, Lee Thaw organized a dinner at Swifty's and among the twenty, selected, guests, there was Shafferman. Other guests were:
Patricia Buckley,
Consuelo Crespi, Olga Rostropovich (daughter of
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well ...
), Marguerite Litman (a noted London hostess), Countess Elizabeth von Habsburg, Kartica Soekarno,
John Richardson, Archduke
Geza von Habsburg, Kenny Lane, Pete Hathaway, Toto Bergamo, Larry Lovett, Pierre Durand,
Alex Hitz, Alexander Apsis, Sebastian Thaw, Victor Barcimento.
In 2008 he attended the Venetian Heritage Event honoring
Larry Lovett at the St. Regis Hotel; he is photographed talking with Gaetana Enders.
Shafferman died on October 19, 2009, of pancreatic cancer.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shafferman, Victor
1941 births
2009 deaths
Canadian gay men
McGill University alumni
People from Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
20th-century Canadian LGBT people
21st-century Canadian LGBT people