G

reta Garbo was one of Hollywood’s greatest enigmas. During the 1920s and 30s the Swedish born actress made 28 films before retiring aged just 36.

Garbo’s sultry looks, severe demeanour and classical beauty helped make her one of the greatest actresses of the period straddling both silent films and ‘talkies.’

She jilted her only serious partner and left him waiting at the altar, becoming most famous for her line “I want to be alone” from the 1932 film Grand Hotel, which became her catchphrase.

She retired in 1941. Garbo had squirrelled away a $32 million fortune partly by being famously frugal and, after buying an apartment in Manhattan in 1950, used it as her home for the rest of her life. Apart from occasional travel overseas and daily walks in the city, Garbo kept in touch with her small ring of friends, and became close pals with her housekeeper.

She never married or had any children and died in 1990 aged 84. Since then the flat has remained in the family, until now. It’s been put on the market with an asking price of $5.95 million and is within The Campanile, a 14-storey co-op building.

Garbo’s former flat covers the whole of the fifth floor. The property retains many of her interior decor choices, including silk on the walls in the master bedroom. It also has two further bedrooms and two reception rooms.