The property houses a Bodhi tree grown from a seed given by the Dalai Lama.
After hitting the market in 2021 for $22.6 million, the New Mexico home of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, later bought by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has now shaved its price to $15 million. It’s the latest attempt to offload Allen’s vast estate, said to be worth $20 billion, since he died in 2018.
Located three miles outside of Santa Fe, the adobe structure known as Sol Y Sombra was the final residence of O’Keeffe. The American modernist lived there until her death in 1986 at the age of 98. Later, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was established in Santa Fe.
Four O’Keeffe paintings were part of Allen’s landmark $1.5 billion Christie’s auction in November 2022, the largest private collection sale in auction history. The O’Keeffe artworks included two landscapes, at least one of them, Sand Hill (1930), was most likely painted in the neighboring county of Alcalde. All four soared past their pre-sale estimates, while the only flower painting in the group, White Rose with Larkspur No. I (1927), fetched $26.7 million, nearly three times its high estimate.
The view from Sol Y Sombra, strikingly similar to a Georgia O’Keeffe landscape. Courtesy of Keller Williams Luxury Santa Fe.
Allen, who died in 2018 at age 65, bought the 20-acre property in 2000, according to The Wall Street Journal. The final sale price was not disclosed; however, its list price at the time was $12.2 million.
A sunken pool on the property. Courtesy of Keller Williams Luxury Santa Fe.
There are six bedrooms in the main house, as well as two guest houses and a lodge, for a total of 21 bedrooms. The 9,000-square-foot main house—which dates to the 1930s—features beamed ceilings and double-thick adobe walls, in some places triple-thick.
A room of Sol Y Sombra. Courtesy of Keller Williams Luxury Santa Fe.
Amenities include a library, a game room, a cinema, kiva fireplaces, a chef’s kitchen, a solarium, brick and hardwood flooring, a rose garden, and a roof deck to take in the sunset.
In addition to Allen cactus collection, the greenhouse holds a Bodhi tree grown from a seed given by the Dalai Lama after visiting the property. According to the listing, that seed traces back to the tree that Buddha himself sat under ca. 500 B.C.E. to attain enlightenment.
The Bodhi tree’s plaque in the greenhouse of Sol Y Sombra. Courtesy of Keller Williams Luxury Santa Fe.
Source: ART Net
