Robert Rauschenberg
The former New York City home of the American artist Robert Rauschenberg, now the site of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, has been put on the market.
381 Lafayette Street in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood is a five-story, 9,200-square-foot townhouse. After winning the grand prize in painting at the 1965 Venice Biennale, Rauschenberg bought the building for $65K (or about $690K in 2026). The building had previously housed the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin orphanage, with Rauschenberg using the deconsecrated chapel as his main studio space. Rauschenberg allowed many of his artist friends to stay at the house, with 381 Lafayette euphemistically referred to as “Milton’s Hilton” (Milton being Rauschenberg’s given first name). He later purchased a house on Captiva Island, Florida, which became his primary residence starting in 1970. However, Rauschenberg maintained ownership of 381 Lafayette Street as “his curatorial and philanthropic home base”, later establishing his Experiments in Art and Technology project there. The building was transferred to his namesake foundation upon his death in 2008.
The building was recently found on Newmark, with no mention of its history or current occupants. It refers to the structure as an office building with the option to convert it into “luxury rentals or boutique condominiums.” No asking price is listed. Some speculate that the Rauschenberg Foundation is leaving the building in response to the construction of a large residential building at 375 Lafayette Street. The foundation had previously commented that the construction would have “a significant impact on the integrity, functionality, and day-to-day operations of our building”.
A local resort, South Seas, bought Rauschenberg’s Captiva Island residence this past April for $45 million. The property contains a main house, several cottages, and an art studio, all sitting on twenty-two acres of land. The property was also the location for one of the Rauschenberg Foundation’s residencies. The artist’s estate said they decided to sell the residence because they do not have the funding needed to protect the property from environmental factors such as rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Many locals note that South Seas already owns 300 acres of the island, or nearly 40% of all land on Captiva. In October 2025, an effort was made to organize the island’s fire district with a group of investors to buy the land to preserve it. Upon hearing of the sale, the Captiva Civic Association issued a statement calling it “a monumental betrayal by the Rauschenberg Foundation of the Captiva community that Bob Rauschenberg loved and personally sought to protect from overdevelopment”.