A Santa Fe, New Mexico, home with a starry yet tragic backstory is coming to market. The 53-acre estate, where actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead last February, asks $6.25 million, Mansion Global reports. The couple, who were married in 1991, built the compound’s three-bedroom main house in 1997. Tucked within a private, double-gated community called the Summit, the compound spans 13,000 square feet, with six bedrooms in total.
The contemporary-meets-adobe-style residence features floor-to-ceiling glass, exposed beams, and native stone. A cozy library, where the Oscar winner liked to watch movies, is lined with built-in bookshelves, with a wall of glass opening out onto a balcony and a coffered ceiling lined with mismatched squares of patterned fabric, to aid in soundproofing the space. Other highlights include a step-down living room with a fireplace and expansive window views, a massive eat-in kitchen, and a window-lined dining room with an additional fireplace and outdoor access. A three-bedroom guesthouse and an artist studio, where Hackman devoted time to painting after retiring from acting in the 2000s, are also found on the property. Outdoor features include a putting green, a pagoda-covered hot tub, and a small swimming pool.
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Hackman was found to have died of heart disease, while Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rodent borne disease. Given the dwelling’s morbid background, listing agents Tara S. Earley and Ricky Allen of Sotheby’s International Realty priced the property in accordance to regular market value, instead of applying the markup that often comes attached to a celebrity pedigreed dwelling. “There will be some buyers that are just adverse to purchasing a property where a death has occurred,” Earley told Mansion Global. “There are other buyers for whom that doesn’t matter. We are selling the property on its virtues and all of the positives.
