The Upper East Side is witnessing some price-cutting but it is still not a bargain basement.

The asking price for the former Henry T. Sloane mansion at 18 West 68th Street has been reduced from about $64 million to $54 million and the price for a 15-room duplex apartment at 740 Park Avenue has been cut from about $35 million to $26 million.

The 68th Street house was acquired in 2003 for $7.6 million by the Dominion Group controlled by Milton S. Rinzler and his sons Bradley T. Rinzer and James K. Rinzler, according to a June 20, 2004 article in The New York Times by William Neuman.

It was acquired in 2007 for about $20 million by a group headed by Joseph Ingrassia that put it up for sale February, 2008 for $64 million after they vacated it. One of the last tenants to relocate from the building was Aileen Mehle, the gossip columnist known as Suzy Knickerbocker.

A February 20, 2008 article by Max Abelson in the on-line edition of The New York Obsderver said that Mr. Ingrassia's partners include "John R. Rice III, who is the other managing member at Capstone, a billion-dollar venture merchant banking firm that funds companies behind kosher foods, ladies handbags and even Danny DeVito's Preminium Limoncello," adding that "a third partner is Stephen Zoukis, formerly an executive for a German-U.S. real estate investment firm."

Mr. Sloan's father, William Sloan was a founder of W. & J. Sloan, a home furnishings store in New York that provided many of the interiors for The Breakers in Newport, R.I., and the White House in Washington, D.C. Mr. Sloan's uncle was married to Emily Vanderbilt, the sister of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Mr. Sloan built this property in 1905 after he divorced his wife, Jessie, in 1899 when they were living at his former mansion designed by Carrere & Hastings on a 54-foot-wide plot at 9 East 72nd Street. Jessie then married Perry Belmont, the son of August Belmont and Mr. Sloan prevented her from seeing their two daughters until they were 21 unless she could prove she was "leading a moral life."

According to an article by Christopher Gray in the January 7, 2001 edition of The New York Times, Mr. Sloan rented the mansion at 9 East 72nd Street to Joseph Pulitzer and then sold it in 1901 to James Stillman, who, "backed by the Rockefeller family, had build the National City Bank into one of the nation's largest." After Mr. Stillman died, it was acquired by John Sanford, a carpet manufacturer but after he died it was converted for a religious organization and eventually was acquired by Lycee Francais in 1964.

This building was designed by C. H. P. Gilbert, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, who designed such mansions as the E. C. Converse house at 3 East 78th Street in 1895, the Isaac D. Fletcher House at 2 East 79th Street, three F. W. Woolworth mansions at 2, 4 and 6 East 80 Street, and the Felix Warburg Mansion at 1109 Fifth Avenue in 1908.

The property was first put on the market with a price of $64 million last year by Paula Del Nunzio, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens. Yesterday, her website was updated and the price was stated at $54,000,000.

Her website describes the building as "Built on a plot 36 feet wide by 100 feet deep, comprising approximately 19,300 square feet, with stunning terraces and ceilings on several floors ranging from 13 to 15 feet, this home features 15 bedrooms, 17 baths, and 11 fireplaces."

Yesterday's edition of The New York Observer carried an article by Mr. Abelson that the apartment that belonged to the late June and Randolph L. Speight at 740 Park Avenue had chopped its sales price from $35 million to $26 million.