Enhancing The Home

The artwork in the Los Angeles home of Lois and Richard Neiter reflects their eclectic aesthetic and their knowledge of art.

- John O'hern

Lois and Richard Neiter bought their first piece of art on their honeymoon in Italy. “It was a ‘Europe on $5 a day’ honeymoon,” Richard recalls. “We went to a lot of museums,” Lois says, “but we weren’t thinking of collecting.” They saw a micromosaic by a Florentine tradesman that captured them, however, and they decided to buy it. They couldn’t afford the $150 price and the dealer refused to bargain. After touring elsewhere they returned to the gallery, which agreed to let the couple have the piece for $5 a month.

When their children had graduated from college, they began to collect seriously. Lois, who had been a teacher, became a dealer, displaying art in their home and its 1-acre manicured garden to give people a sense of what it is like to live with art. Richard decorated his Los Angeles chambers as a U.S. bankruptcy judge with examples of fine art.

They moved to a condominium five years ago, which doesn’t permit commercial business and which didn’t have a space for their outdoor art. Lois has become a consultant and a fortuitous encounter solved the problem of many of the outdoor pieces.

Visiting the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, they were given a tour by Scott Shields, the museum’s associate director and chief curator. They mentioned to him that they were moving. “We told him we had a number of pieces we couldn‘t take with us and they deserve to be in a place where the public can see them,” Richard relates. “Scott told us the museum was planning to develop a sculpture park and the pieces could have a home there. We later donated the outdoor pieces as well as a couple of indoor pieces.”