NAMES IN THE NEWS : Von Hapsburg Gets Royal Boot

Princess Michaela von Hapsburg, a granddaughter of the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, and her family have been evicted from their posh Manhattan penthouse.

The eviction became public Thursday when a city marshal announced an auction of the furnishings in the apartment. The princess’s lawyers are trying to save the family’s possessions, which reportedly include the seal of the Hapsburg dynasty.

Thursday was the anniversary of the 1914 assassination of Von Hapsburg’s grandfather’s great-nephew, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, whose deaths signaled the beginning of World War I.

A leaking roof started the dispute, according to a New York Daily News report Saturday. Von Hapsburg and her husband, Duke Eric d’Antin, complained to the landlord about the leak, which later was fixed, said Arthur Birnbaum, lawyer for the landlord, Blair Tower Associates.

But Birnbaum said the family did not make a March deadline for paying $108,000 in back rent after the roof was fixed. They were given several more chances to pay before the landlord took over the apartment by changing the locks, he said.

The royal couple and their three children moved from the 5,000-square-foot penthouse with panoramic city views to a hotel.