It was the day after Christmas and New York magazine was trumpeting the latest property triumph by Rupert Murdoch’s heirs, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch, who had just flipped their Nolita loft to an “Israeli producer” for twice what they paid for it four years before.

“That’s a sick price!” a property broker told the magazine, as the junior Murdochs walked away with a $US4 million profit. But details of the 2003 deal quickly blurred, beginning with who was the new owner.