Manhattan Socialite Ruth Bashinsky Evicts After Foreclosure of Hamptons Estate

Ruth Bashinsky arrived at Libbie Mugrabi's Hamptons estate in a modest Honda CR-V, leaving her vehicle on the street while a $400,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom rested in the driveway. The sprawling six-bedroom Bridgehampton home sat on about seven acres of woods and multimillion-dollar properties. It had belonged to Libbie since 2020, following her divorce settlement from billionaire art collector David Mugrabi. Now, after a foreclosure auction last month, the Manhattan socialite was packing up.

She failed to keep up with mortgage payments, forcing a sale at auction. She has about a month to move out or risk eviction. When Bashinsky arrived around 12pm on a recent Thursday, Libbie stood outside loading belongings into a storage pod. She wore a short red pajama set. They spent time enjoying the grounds and listening to birds before Libbie invited her inside.

Soon they sipped expensive champagne and toured the house while discussing their shared Jewish upbringing, art, fashion, and the bitter divorce. Libbie showed off her office, perhaps the clearest glimpse of her next life: a career in fashion. Her L'Scher brand appeared on canvas as pink graffiti. Clothes, books, paperwork, and merchandise covered the room. She displayed latest designs, including a hat emblazoned with 'DEFY.' Another carried the word 'C**tessa,' a deliberately profane play on Contessa that made her laugh.

She changed from pajamas into a white feathered jacket of her own design before posing for photographs. Elsewhere, the house held art, including a Damien Hirst work of unknown value in an all-white living room. They moved to the master bedroom where designer clothes, shoes, jewelry, and handbags spilled from an enormous walk-in closet. Libbie showed bikinis she was packing for a move to Florida. She said she was ready for a new beginning.

'I am really happy and excited to leave,' she stated. 'I don't ever want to come back to New York.' She called it the dirtiest, most corrupt place. The news is all fake...

It is disgusting," says Libbie Scher, "and it's anti-Semitic too." She insists she was ready to move on, yet her anger over losing her home and the divorce that caused it still boils beneath the surface. Designer clothes, shoes, jewels, and handbags spill out of an enormous walk-in closet as a silent testament to what once was. Her L'Scher brand is splashed across a canvas in pink graffiti inside her office, marking a space now being emptied.

The split began in 2018 and settled in 2020. It became one of New York's most spectacular society battles, with their fortune and vast art collection at the center of the fight. Libbie had previously described finding David with another woman in this very home as the final straw. She told me the same story: she went upstairs to bed during a July 4 weekend party in 2018 before discovering David downstairs naked with another woman the following morning.

The precise terms of the divorce settlement were never made public, although reports said she had sought $100 million. "I was entitled to half of a billion in the divorce," Libbie fumed, the conversation growing more heated. "I settled for just a few paintings, this house and some monthly money." The Bridgehampton mansion, valued at the time at around $18 million, was one of the major assets she received in her divorce from David Mugrabi. But now it is at the center of another legal battle entirely.

Libbie took out a $3.5 million loan secured against the property but later admitted she stopped paying it back in October 2024, allowing ownership to cede to the lender. Movers pack up the sprawling six-bedroom estate as the house goes on sale at a public auction for a fraction of its asking price. A subsequent arrangement gave Libbie an opportunity to sell the house herself. She listed it for $25 million, later cutting the asking price to $19 million. When she failed to find a buyer before the deadline, the property was put up for sale at a public foreclosure auction.

Libbie describes the auction as bogus. She believes her house has effectively been stolen from her. "Normally, when you have an auction you have to advertise it [properly] to the public but it was never advertised," she said. "The auction was rigged, unfair and unjust and my deed was taken." Taking occasional hits from her vape, Libbie describes a series of humiliating events that led to her home being sold for a mere $5.86m. The auction itself was out of control, with locals crowding into Town Hall to watch the drama unfold.

Libbie's mother, Jane Scher, was among those in attendance, accompanied by her dog, Botox. At one point, she turned to the lender's attorney, Ryan Mitola of Vallely Mitola Ryan, and reportedly told him: "Your client is a d**k." The home has been hers since her 2020 divorce settlement from billionaire art collector David Mugrabi. Meanwhile, Libbie's sister, Mia Rowe, appeared determined to save the house, repeatedly raising her bid as she was outbid by others. At one point, her $7.8 million bid was accepted, seemingly putting the property back within the family's grasp.

She held up the auction as she ran to the bank to get the certified check she needed. But when the bank couldn't provide it, the property went to the next bidder, Henry Ikezi, an investor and Queens politician. The drama did not end there. Police were called and Jane was eventually escorted from the auction with Botox after an angry confrontation in which she was described as a lunatic. Dan Russo, the attorney who acted as referee for the auction, later told the Daily Mail that the proceeding was out of control.

Under the auction terms, Ikezi has up to 45 days to complete the purchase, according to the Post. When I left her home at around 8pm, Libbie had given the impression she was ready for a new chapter. But when the Daily Mail returned to the property a few days later to photograph her before she left, the mood had changed and she refused to come out. She had initially agreed to meet the photographer at the house, but changed her mind at the last minute and remained inside. Outside, a handful of movers continued loading her belongings into a storage pod as the once-bustling estate fell quiet.

Soon, the house that had been at the center of Libbie's marriage, divorce and years of legal battles will belong to someone else. If the transaction is completed and Mugrabi refuses to leave, he can seek to have her evicted from the property by police. The situation remains volatile as regulations shift and personal fortunes collide with public auctions where access is strictly limited to those with cash and nerve.