Metro

Johnson & Johnson heiress drops $48M on Vanderbilt Mansion

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New York real estate is back in the money!

Johnson & Johnson heiress Libet Johnson has just plunked down at least $48 million for the Vanderbilt Mansion at 16 E. 69th St.

The purchase price is the most anyone has paid for a Manhattan townhouse since 2008, when 14 E. 67 St. sold for $49 million, real estate appraiser/expert Jonathan Miller told The Post.

“This is the highest reported residential sale of any type this year, and it would be the highest Manhattan townhouse sale since 2008 pre-Lehman,” Miller said.

Johnson, married five times and the sister of Jets owner Woody Johnson, has a voracious appetite for handsome husbands and big-time real estate.

She also owned a stunning, 20,000-square-foot triplex at the Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West.

Johnson’s current deal is striking because it was made without a broker.

The five-story, neo-Georgian mansion, built in 1881, was previously owned by Roger Barnett, founder of beauty.com, and Sloan Lindemann Barnett, an author and heiress. She is the daughter of billionaire George Lindemann, a cable TV and cellphone mogul.

Sloan Lindemann Barnett also happens to be a good pal of Johnson.

Roger Barnett purchased the mansion in 2001 for $11 million and then hired noted interior designer Peter Marino to do a full, multimillion dollar renovation.

The mansion is a generous 33 feet wide. At a roomy 12,100 square feet, it is considered by many brokers to be a major trophy property.

The mansion was once owned by Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, widow of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, who headed New York Central Railroad.

The Barnetts’ renovation of the five-story brick townhouse focused on entertaining. The entrance has a grand foyer, staircase, and giant kitchen built over most of the pre-existing garden, say sources familiar with the property.

There was also a staff kitchen. The second floor is a giant living room and formal dining room that overlooked a much smaller garden.

The third floor is a master bedroom that “spares no expense,” and the fourth and fifth floors — devoted to children’s rooms — are apparently a “random disconnect” from the rest of the home, a spy said.

jkeil@nypost.com