A billionaire has been trying to sell his Versailles-inspired mansion for nearly 8 years — and it's finally set to sell at a 47% discount. Look inside the Manhattan townhouse.

Vincent Viola's Upper East Side townhouse was once the most expensive home publicly listed for sale in New York City.

Since it was first listed for $114 million in 2013, the home has seen several price reductions. Even its most recent listing price of $79 million made it the second-priciest public listing in the city, according to Trulia and Zillow.

Vincent Viola, who founded Virtu Financial and has a net worth of $2.8 billion , bought the house in 2005 for $20 million, according to The Real Deal.

In December, Viola sold his home in Brooklyn Heights for $25.5 million, breaking the record for Brooklyn's priciest home sale ever, Mansion Global reported.

The townhouse is half a block from Central Park.

The six-bedroom Upper East Side townhouse is 40 feet wide and "totally renovated," the listing agent, Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, told Insider in 2019.

The opulent six-level home spans more than 20,000 square feet . The floors in the entry hall are heated onyx marble.

Four windows span both the front and the rear facades, providing "remarkable light at all times," according to the listing.

The formal entry hall has 14-foot ceilings.

The house has a water filtration system, a security system with cameras, and a heated sidewalk for automatic snow removal.

The entry hall opens to a rotunda with 28.5-foot ceilings.

The home's interior design style is "typical of the great mansions of Europe and of Stanford White in America," Del Nunzio told Insider in 2019.

"The original architect of this mansion, William Bosworth, worked on the Rockefeller family estate, Kykuit in Tarrytown, and under the auspices of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Bosworth was commissioned to restore the Palace of Versailles, France," she said.

A colorful mural is painted on the library's ceiling.

On the garden level, an additional entrance to the library offers private access to the office.

Del Nunzio described the scale of the interior rooms as "without compare" in any New York mansion.

Viola, the owner, collected art, furnishings, and decoration ideas during his world travels that were used in the home, per the listing.

In 2017, the home almost sold to a Chinese buyer for $80 million, but the deal fell through, The Real Deal reported.

The house then went up for rent for $175,000 a month before being relisted for $88 million.

The home's third floor includes a 40-foot-wide kitchen.

Four windows bring in bright natural light.

On the same level is the formal dining room, which was inspired by the Palace of Versailles in France and can accommodate more than 40 people.

Bosworth, the home's architect, was also commissioned to restore Versailles, according to Del Nunzio.

The house includes two bedrooms on the fourth level and a master-bedroom suite with a large sitting room and two full baths on the fifth level.

The two 40-foot-wide bedrooms on the fourth floor could be converted to four or more bedrooms , according to the listing.

The fifth-floor master bedroom also includes two dressing rooms and a separate guest suite.

One of the master bedroom's dressing rooms is wired as a panic room , the listing says.

The bathroom pictured in the listing looks like it belongs in a palace.

Like much of the apartment, it's decorated opulently. The apartment has a total of nine bathrooms .

On the home's lower level is the saline swimming pool, as well as two saunas and a full bath.

In the rear of the pool is the lower entrance to the split-level home movie theater .

The movie theater spans two levels and includes 12 velvet chairs.

In total, the apartment is spread across six floors , culminating in a 2,650-foot rooftop that has a garden — and views of Central Park.

Via PakApNews