NY- TWO years after losing his beloved Penthouse, porn pioneer Bob Guccione, 75, has officially lost his home, too.
Lawyers for the fallen smut peddler surrendered possession of his fabled pleasure palace at 14-16 E. 67th St. on Tuesday after an ugly court battle over Guccione's failure to repay a $25 million loan. Guccione came dangerously close to losing the place back in February 2004, when he defaulted on a prior loan, but was saved at the 11th hour when investment firm Laurus Funds stepped in.
Sadly, "after saving him from ruin, Guccione defaulted on that loan, too, almost immediately," said Scott Tross of law firm Herrick, Feinstein, which represented Laurus in the litigation. "I'm not sure he ever had the wherewithal to pay it back."
After years of losing readers to the Web, Guccione's General Media (which published Penthouse among other, raunchier rags) declared bankruptcy in 2003. Although he was briefly employed by Penthouse's subsequent owners, he earned no salary for at least the past year while he battled throat cancer.
Tross and Paul Schafhauser, another partner at the law firm, were given the keys to Guccione's linked townhouses, complete with swimming pool, by his longtime lawyer, Jay Newman, early Tuesday morning, and took an unguided tour of the premises.
(Aware of the pending eviction, Guccione had moved out the previous weekend and is said to be staying with family in Texas.)
"Opening the door of that house is like walking into the late-'70s," Schafhauser said. "Gold-plated chandeliers, mirrors on the ceiling, the whole deal. You can tell at one time it was really lavish, but it needs a lot of work. There are ceiling leaks and paint peeling off the walls and many of the toilets don't flush properly."
Although most of the furniture had been removed, Guccione left some souvenirs behind, mostly old framed newspaper stories chronicling his various courtroom battles and babe-heavy photos of him in his heyday.
According to Schafhauser, Laurus has yet to decide what to do with the townhouse, but said he expects it will be put on the market sometime soon.
A real estate source tells PAGE SIX it could fetch anywhere from "$25-to-$40 million." Newman did not return calls.
