The twinkling lights of Hollywood are losing their luster as California wildfires force some residents to flee — and New York City is quickly becoming their landing pad.
When flames broke out near Ilian Rebei’s art gallery in the Hollywood Hills, the message became clear: “With artwork, when it’s gone, it’s gone,” he told Curbed in an interview.
The gallery owner wasted no time, calling dozens of freight companies to safely ship his collection of 35 paintings and 15 drawings. Rebei then worked with a real estate agent to snap up an Upper East Side studio in record time, moving in just days after the ongoing fire started, he told the media.
“For me, the moment was now,” Rebei said.
Nearly 200 works of art by Hunter Biden, for example, were lost in the fires. The collection, valued at “millions of dollars” by a source close to the Biden family, was stored near the Pacific Palisades residence of Hunter’s Hollywood lawyer, Kevin Morris.
Rebei is part of a growing number of Californians fleeing the Golden State as wildfires continue to destroy homes and displace tens of thousands of residents.
Real estate agents in New York are even feeling the heat, with an increase in calls from West Coast clients eager to secure housing.
Some are abandoning LA altogether, saying the risks and costs are no longer worth it.
“Everything is burnt. Fortunately, we have insurance,” one Angeleno told Enrica Petrongari, a real estate agent at Keller Williams NYC, adding that he said, “It’s not worth it to own a house in California anymore.”
Ryan Serhant recently revealed that he has been inundated with inquiries from Los Angeles agents whose clients are looking for East Coast rental properties.
As the scale of the destruction becomes clearer, many of these customers are shifting their focus from renting to buying homes.
“People have been saying this is the last straw for the state,” Serhant said on Fox Business.
Hollywood itself is not immune to the consequences.
TV writer Alex O’Keefe, best known for his work on “The Bear,” says the fires are just the latest blow to an industry already struggling with the fallout from the broadcast bubble and a major writers’ strike. .
“I also think the insurance on the production is going to be very high,” O’Keefe told Curbed, adding that he’s now permanently moving to New York to be closer to his fiancee’s family.
Meanwhile, some Californians are still hanging on, hoping to rebuild.
Developer Michael Yarinsky, who offered his North Fork home as temporary housing, said many displaced residents are not yet ready to leave.
“They want to stay local, monitor the situation – some of them haven’t even had access to their home page,” he explained.
“I think it’s probably going to happen that some of them end up moving to the East Coast, but a lot of people are just trying to figure out where the land is right now.”
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