• Renée Zellweger has paid $2.8 million for a second-floor apartment at 24 East 82nd Street, making it the third unit she's bought in the building since 2007. The seller was Ruth Tyrangiel, one of Bob Dylan's former lovers. [NYO]

• NYSE Euronext's Philippe Duranton has paid $4.6 million for a 3,000-square-foot condo at 32 West 18th Street (left). The best part? One of his new neighbors will be Atoosa Rubenstein. [Cityfile]

Take a gander at the most expensive residential real estate purchase in history. An unnamed Russian billionaire is paying $748 million for Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera, acquiring the property from Lily Safra, the widow of Edmond Safra. What do you get for all that cash? In addition to everything else, you inherit a staff of 50 full-time gardeners. [NYP]

• Real estate developer Christopher Jeffries, whose Millennium Partners turned the St. Moritz on Central Park South into a Ritz-Carlton with 277 rooms and 11 full-floor condos, has sold his 29th floor, 5,954-square-foot apartment in the building for $28.5 million. [Cityfile]

Now that Albert Hammond Jr. is settling down with Agyness Deyn, he's looking to unload his East Village bachelor pad and join his fiancée in Brooklyn, The Post's Braden Keil reports today. Hammond is asking $1.199 million for the 1,200-square-foot co-op at 141 East 3rd Street, which he bought in 2005. The apartment features two bedrooms, a makeshift recording studio, and a renovated kitchen. More photos below.

Rocker turned Broadway composer Duncan Sheik, who won a 2007 Tony for his work on Spring Awakening, has sold his Tribeca loft at 195 Hudson Street for $2.65 million. The 2,402-square-foot space is configured as an artist/musician loft, according to the Halstead listing, with one room set up as a recording studio. The buyer is listed as artist William Ryman. [Cityfile]

Edgar Bronfman Jr. has one less thing to worry about. The Post's Braden Keil reports today that the heir and Warner Music CEO has finally gone into contract to sell the Amagansett property that has been on and off the market since 2006. The three-acre estate, which Bronfman purchased for $12.5 million in 2005, includes a six-bedroom, 8,000-square-foot main house as well as a guest house and pool house. A sale price hasn't been disclosed (yet)—it was last on the market for $14.7 million—but you can take a look around at the property after the jump.

• Bill Brady, the co-chair of Credit Suisse's technology investment banking group, has sold his duplex penthouse at 744 Greenwich Street for $8.5 million. He paid $6.95 million for the apartment just last year, a mere three months before picking up a larger $15.5 million unit in Julian Schnabel's Village Palazzo Chupi. (Click through for more photos.) [Cityfile]

• Thomas J. McInerney, Barry Diller's right-hand man and IAC's chief financial officer, paid $4.8 million for a 12th floor apartment at 300 East 79th Street. The 2,664-square-foot space has four bedrooms. [Cityfile]

• Software entrepreneur Peter Norton, the man responsible for that little Norton Anti-Virus icon on your desktop, paid $6.8 million for a penthouse apartment at The Greenwich on West 13th Street, the same apartment building that's home to Michael Kors and Shepard Smith. [Observer]

• Jamie-Lynn Sigler of Sopranos fame has sold her two-bedroom loft at 25 Leonard Street for $2.9 million. [Cityfile]

Stanley Cheslock is the former merchant banker who spent four years building the Greenwich estate pictured above, which comes with a 26,000-square-foot house, indoor pool, movie theater, 12-car garage, and 3,700-bottle wine cellar. Pretty nice place, eh? Poor Stan spent some $21 million building it from the ground up. Except when he was done, he and his wife realized they'd overextended themselves a wee bit and decided to put the property up for sale. Unfortunately, the Cheslocks didn't find anyone interested in writing a check for $31 million. So he and his wife did the unthinkable: They put the property up for auction. (Like a rundown apartment in foreclosure! The shame!) The sealed bidding process started at $19 million—or $2 million less than what Cheslock paid to build it—and it ends precisely two weeks from today. More photos follow below.

• The Lenox Hill mansion at 601-603 Park Avenue has sold for $31.79 million. The seller was developer Sherman Cohen, who bought the property for $12.5 million back in 1989. [Real Deal]

• Now that he's moving into 15 Central Park West, Bob Costas has unloaded his 61st-floor condo at the Time Warner Center for $8.5 million. [NYO]

The glassy Richard Meier-designed 165 Charles Street is losing one of its most famous residents, the Post's Braden Keil reports today: Natalie Portman has put her convertible three-bedroom apartment on the market for $6.55 million. (She bought the place for $5.7 million in 2005.) Sad news for the other tenants in the building, sure, but there's a silver lining: The apartment directly below Natalie's is also on the market right now and the two pads could easily be converted into a ridiculously expensive duplex. (Just go grab your checkbook and call this lady.) More photos and a floorplan below.

• Rachael Ray and her husband John Cusimano paid $1.25 million for apartment 6G at 49 East 12th Street, the Greenwich Village building they already live in. The couple had previously purchased units 6E and F back in 2004. [TRD]
  

• Arthur Zeckendorf has finally closed on his apartment at 15 Central Park West: He paid $10.9 million for a four-bedroom on the 10th floor of the building that he developed with his brother, William. [TRD, photo via NYO]
  

• A month ago, it was rumored that Jonathan Tisch set a record for the most expensive co-op in NYC history when he bought an 11th floor apartment at 2 East 67th for $48 million. The Times confirmed the price tag over the weekend, but today the Observer suggests that the Loews heir overpaid, since the property was listed for about 20 percent less in 2007. [Observer]

• Sheila Nevins paid $2 million for apartment 16J in the Chelsea Mercantile, making it the third apartment she's purchased in the building in the past four years. She previously bought a sixth-floor unit for $1.095 million in 2004 and a ninth floor unit for $1.925 million in 2007. Neighbors in the building include Bobby Flay, Stephanie March, Desiree Gruber, and Kyle MacLachlan. [Cityfile]
  

• Robert Cohen, the divorce lawyer who has repped Michael Bloomberg (from Susan), Henry Kravis (from Carolyne), Tommy Mottola (from Mariah), and Christie Brinkley on two occasions (Billy Joel, Peter Cook), is saying goodbye to 920 Fifth. Cohen, who was once described by Town & Country as "your worst nightmare," has sold his second-floor apartment for $8.3 million. [Cityfile]