The Thrilla in Laguna: A Billionaire, His Neighbors and Their Battle Over Art

When Amy Gross’s mother fell ill, Amy’s husband, the investor Bill Gross, bought his wife a $1 million Dale Chihuly: a 9-foot-high-by-22-foot-long sculpture made up of spheres and wispy blown-glass tubes in cobalt and teal blue. Blue is her mother’s favorite color. They installed it in the backyard of their cliffside Laguna Beach home. Amy said she and her mother started praying to it. “Since I have no children of my own, they are like my babies,” she added. So it was upsetting when a sphere got damaged. Odd, it seemed to her, because “the ball is very, very thick… Read Full Article