Lost L.A.: The Arabella Huntington gallery, a fleeting tribute from husband to wife

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It was railroad magnate Henry Huntington’s tribute to his late wife, Arabella: the gallery, pictured above, with Italian and Northern Renaissance paintings, French gilded bronzes and inlaid furniture, and other treasured collections lighted by chandeliers inside his San Marino estate. For flourish and authenticity, Henry took the Italian Baroque red velvet that had hung on the walls of the couple’s New York home, below, and reinstalled it in his California rare-book library.

For more back story to the Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Gallery and to find out its ultimate fate, read the latest installment of our column Lost L.A.

-- Sam Watters

Photo credit, top: Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

Photo credit, below: Hispanic Society of America

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