The castle-like remains of an eccentric scholar's unfinished artist sanctuary is now on the market in Florida.
Located in Monticello, near Tallahassee, the isolated campus was once called the Nautilus Foundation, and it was the utopian dream of the late Guggenheim fellow and Getty scholar François Bucher, who taught art history at the nearby Florida State University.
According to property records, Bucher was given the land in 1980 by the author William S. Burroughs, who was famous for writing the cult classic, "Naked Lunch."
The campus consists of two main buildings, the modern castle "Trivium" building and the "The Quadrivium," which was meant to be an outpost for the International Academy of Architects.
Built with the "golden ratio," the Quadrivium resembles a nautilus from above, and was designed to host art studios and a dormitory for visiting artists and scholars.
Across the street is the Trivium, where Bucher resided. The castle included a secret passage from the kitchen, which led to a theatre room. It was also home to his 11,000-volume library, as well as his large collection of rare paintings and sculptures, and a sofa previous owned by his friend, Albert Einstein.
The Swiss-born professor began working on the project in the early-'80s, and invited various painters and artists to live and work at the colony before it was ever completed. Though it was designed to be a think tank for himself and fellow intellectuals, only two artists are on record as living/working at the foundation, sculptor David Heaps and painter Rick Robertson, according to Tallahassee Magazine.
Bucher died alone at the Nautilus Foundation in 1999, and was buried on the property in an aboveground sarcophagus, says the publication.
A year before his death, Bucher transferred the property, which also includes a "whale garage" and various outdoor sculptures, to the Collins Center for Public Policy, which used it as an event center until it was sold to private owners in 2014.
Today, the buildings and their respective lots are being sold separately.
The 1,907-square-foot Quadrivium comes with a giant unfinished auditorium, two bedrooms and two bathrooms and has a price tag of $890,000. The nearby 9,848-square-foot Trivium comes with three bedrooms and six bathrooms and is asking $1.79 million.
Both listings are represented by Ondrea Maldonado of Joe Manausa Real Estate.
