Elite London estate agents Knight Frank have been brought in to help sell the legendary Upper East Side mansion of Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. The agency is considered to be expert in the kind of Russian billionaires who have fuelled mammoth prices at the highest end of the London property market, and are beginning to make their presence felt in New York as well.

The last major property deal in New York was a Fifth Avenue Beaux Arts mansion, bought by Russian oil magnate Tamir Sapir for $40m. But the asking price for the East 67th St residence is more than double that . . . $99,999,999, to be precise.

"It was a case of throwing in all zeros or all nines, " said Leighton Candler of Corcoran, a New York agency, explaining the pricing policy.

So what will the putative oligarch get for his $100m, with $1 change? The property, which was built in 1879, is one of the largest private residences in Manhattan. The 26-room, six-storey mansion was bought in 1975 by Guccione, who added features including a marble entrance and an indoor swimming pool.

"Properties just don't exist like it any more, " said Candler. "You couldn't build another house like it with double the money. They come up only once every 50 years, and then that's it."