The Provenence of this home.

This Must Be The Place.

When we came to Italy in 2003 with the intention of buying a place to finally experience what it was truly like to live in Italy, we looked at many homes.

Some home were ruins and too much work. Some sent shivers down my back. But this home was special. The minute we walked into the kitchen I sensed that the spirit of this place was a home where people shared conversation around the table discussing art and life.

And it was true.

We bought this home from a famous New York art critic, Barbara Rose. You can see Barbara in the documentary, “The Price of Everything”.
The man who had purchased it for her was her second husband Gerry Leiber of the composing team, Leiber and Stoller who are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They wrote many of Elvis Presley’s songs like “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” and many more. They also co-wrote ‘Stand By Me’ with Ben E. King. They even wrote “Love Potion #9”. The list is long.

Then, her third husband was a famous New York Abstract Expressionist painter name Frank Stella.

Across the valley was another genius painter, Al Held. There was a ‘Whitney’ in the valley below us. It was a great art community.

Barbara was very generous as we came to know her. In fact, she cared so much about her house, she was the only person in our lives to ask us where we were educated. Cool.

Now an art history major and another artist / photographer own this home.