Occupying about 200 acres of some of the most expensive land in the world, the collection is like no other in the nation. A red car dangles from a mighty eucalyptus tree. A sky-colored cow grazes in a lake near a palm oasis.
Flames erupt from the fingers of a life-size blue man.
They were enthusiastically collected for 40 years by Rene di Rosa, a former journalist and vintner, and his late wife, artist Veronica McDonald, who made the floating cow. With no children to inherit the collection, the couple in the early 1990s created the nonprofit preserve and dedicated it to the enjoyment of art and nature. It opened in 1997 but remains largely undiscovered because reservations are required to visit. The county limited access to keep traffic from getting worse on the area's already busy rural highways. The collection is unique not only because of di Rosa's eclectic taste but also because of its untraditional rules.