The Spalding House in Makiki Heights, which once served as a museum for contemporary art, has been sold after several years on the market.

According to the Honolulu Board of Realtor’s website at hicentral.com, the Spalding House at 2411 Makiki Heights Drive was sold in February for $8.3 million to Rong Rong Art and Science LLC, below its latest list price of $9.5 million.

The sprawling, 3.4-acre property, which belonged to the Honolulu Museum of Art, was first listed in 2019 after its board of trustees decided to put the property up for sale.

At the time, the trustees had said from a fiduciary standpoint, the move would allow the museum to focus its resources on its main campus on South Beretania Street.

The museum, which had acquired the property in 1968, held several farewell events before closing Spalding House at the end of 2019 and putting it on the market. It was initially listed at $15 million by Elite Pacific Properties.

Tracy Allen of Coldwell Banker Realty was the listing agent for the property, which was marketed as “a legendary residence” with a main dwelling, multiple open gallery spaces, separate caretaker’s quarters, a swimming pool and meandering gardens.

The buyer was represented by Loren Graham of Graham Group brokered by eXp Realty.

Spalding House once belonged to Honolulu Advertiser publisher and philanthropist Thurston Twigg-Smith, who lived there several years with his family before gifting the property as the Contemporary Museum in 1988.

The Contemporary Museum operated as an independent museum until it returned to the fold of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, HoMA’s former name, as a gift in May 2011.

The property’s total value is at about $17.4 million, according to county tax records.