Matthew Modine sells in Chelsea; (non-starving) artists still live in SoHo; top chefs seek chef’s kitchens.

Culinary notable Bobby Flay and his wife, actress Stephanie March, recently viewed a $12.5 million duplex condo at 88 Franklin Street in TriBeCa. Flay and March currently live in the Chelsea Merantile at 252 Seventh Avenue. With stunning city views from a 1,500-square-foot rooftop terrace and, of course, a top-of-the-line chef’s kitchen, the 5,200-square-foot penthouse has also drawn interest from Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz and Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams (NYPost).
 

Le Cirque restaurant dynasty heir Mauro Maccioni has put his maisonette condo at 444 East 57th Street on the available apartment menu for $1.879 million. The three-bedroom pre-war duplex–Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, Bill Blass and Bobby Short once called the apartment home–boasts an oversized master suite and a fireplace (NYPost).
 

Actor Matthew Modine just found a buyer for his duplex loft at 420 West 25th Street for $2.1 million. Modine, who starred in his own video listing for the 1,668 square-foot apartment with an all-glass kitchen paid $1.73 for the Chelsea condo five years ago (CurbedNY).
 

Artist Cai Guo Qiang, known for designing the fireworks that opened and closed the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and his wife, Wu Hong Hong, just bought a penthouse at 542 Broadway in SoHo. Though the neighborhood has a history of being home to artists, most of the original loft-dwellers didn’t inhabit 4,120-square-foot four-bedroom duplexes with double-height octagonal atrium dining rooms (and they probably didn’t pay $5.95 million for them) (NYObserver).
 

Big Tickets
 

A 7,200-square-foot TriBeCa penthouse just arrived on the market for $42 million. The four-bedroom condo is one of only three left unsold–it was kept off the market until this month– at 250 West Street. The 12th floor penthouse has a private lobby with room for a car, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass panels which open onto a 4,350-square-foot wraparound terrace with protected river and city views as well as a jacuzzi and an outdoor kitchen (WSJ).