"...when I was small, I had quicksilver on me,
danced, played instruments, sang...
I had a great predisposition for variety shows...
and also, I made everybody laugh..."
During his life, the artist matured a great love for the Western Liguria Riviera and particularly for Imperia. In 1927 he bought a vast patch of uncultivated land in the "Cascine" region on a hill just facing the sea and soon enough he started the construction of a fifty-room villa, rich with marble and wonderful decorations, which he would ultimately name "Villa Bianca" after his adopted daughter. The construction, a rich mixture of Persian, Baroque, Liberty and Rococo elements, was then surrounded by a fascinating garden, also designed in a fantastic way.
Once the artist deceased, the large residence and the ample garden surrounding it with its palms, ferns and olives, became a debt because of the enormous maintenance expenses. The widow faced the situation until it was possible, for a period, and then was forced to "close the gates in order not to see the incipient aggressions of time".
Notwithstanding the numerous offers from private groups, Mrs. Wettach
preferred the whole property to be bought by the Public
Administration in order to preserve it for public and cultural reasons as a
perpetual memory of the Artist.
In 1974 the Grock widow died and the adopted daughter, Bianca, sold the whole
property in 1975, including all of her father's objects.
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