South Seas, a resort located on Captiva Island, off the coast of Florida, is the buyer of Robert Rauschenberg’s famed 22-acre property on the island, which had been home to one of the country’s top artist residency programs following his death.
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the steward of the namesake artist’s legacy, had announced last year that it would sell the property, which also includes about 1,000 feet of beachfront property and Rauschenberg’s 8,000-square-foot studio which he built in 1992.
The foundation said the cost to maintain the property had grown beyond what it could manage while still maintaining the other parts of its mission, citing a sustainability assessment that “confirmed that safeguarding the property would require substantial additional investment and site modifications, without ensuring the property’s long-term resilience or reducing the likelihood of future costs.” That statement added that “Robert Rauschenberg believed that change was essential to creativity.”
South Seas announced the acquisition via a news release on March 31, with its president Greg Spencer saying that the property going for sale presented “a rare and compelling opportunity to acquire prime beachfront directly adjacent to our established resort” that could seamlessly integrate into their existing resort, according to Fort Myers News-Press, which first reported the news.
News-Press said property records showed the sale price to be $45 million.
The Rauschenberg Foundation declined to comment on the finalization of the sale.
In the release, Spencer added that South Seas, which reopened in May 2025, plans to pay tribute to Rauschenberg “through future art-related programming and by incorporating several buildings from the property into our resort.”
Members of the local community have expressed their unhappiness with the foundation’s sale. In a release, as reported by News-Press, the Captiva Civic Association called it “a grievous betrayal,” adding that “the foundation has failed the island community that Bob Rauschenberg loved and personally sought to protect from development.”
Rauschenberg, who was one of the most influential artists of the postwar era and was the first American artist to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, purchased his first property on Captiva Island in 1968, according to the foundation’s chronology on the artist.
In the late fall of 1970, Rauschenberg relocated his primary residence and studio to Captiva Island, while still maintaining his Lafayette Street property in Manhattan, which is today the headquarters of the Rauschenberg Foundation. He would continue to purchase adjacent properties on Captiva in the ensuing years.
The foundation established the residency program in 2012, shortly after his death in 2008. Since its launch the program hosted more than 500 fellows on Captiva Island. They have included some of the most acclaimed artists working today, including Senga Nengudi, Kevin Beasley, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Theaster Gates, Byron Kim, Jesse Krimes, Ebony G. Patterson, Dinh Q Le, and Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio.
The foundation paused its residency in 2020 because of the pandemic and its resumption was delayed by Hurricane Ian in September 2022, which also severed the causeway that connects the island to mainland Florida. The property’s buildings survived the hurricane, though they suffered varying degrees of damage.
In its 2025 announcement, the foundation said it would host artists in residence at Captiva through August 2026; that final cohort has since been canceled, and the residency program has officially ended.
