In many ways, the house is quite beautiful. But it is also a place full of shadows, a haunting just visible in its empty silver picture frames and in the red, white and blue signs that hang on every door: “United States Marshal,” the signs say. “No Trespassing.”

The shadow behind all that opulence is other people’s money. This was one of the residences of Peter B. Madoff, chief compliance officer at the firm owned by his older brother, Bernard L. Madoff.

Peter Madoff pleaded guilty last year to a host of crimes, including falsifying documents and lying to regulators. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit all of his and his family’s assets to the government, so they could be sold, piece by piece, and the proceeds distributed to victims of his brother’s Ponzi scheme.

The Marshals Service took possession of the Old Westbury home in January, and late last month it put the property on the market for $4.495 million.

“When dealing with a home this grandiose, the outside world can lose sight of where all these fine things come from,” Kevin Kamrowski, a deputy United States marshal, said in an e-mail. “Everything in this home was obtained on the backs of other people.”

When the Marshals Service takes over a property, a well-practiced process is set in motion. First, the house is secured and the locks are changed; motion-sensing security systems and surveillance cameras might be installed. (In the foyer of the Madoff property, there is a sturdy-looking gray box standing on an ornate little table. Feel free to wave at it.)

Next, contractors are hired to do a bit of maintenance, and a real estate management company brings in a local agent to sell the property. In a high-profile case, the Marshals Service helps to select the sales team.

An important preliminary: Every single piece of property that is not a part of the house itself is indexed, appraised and tagged.

At the house on Pheasant Run, in the 600-square-foot formal living room, a forest of little white tags swing from every surface. They are on gold-color lamps, crystal candlesticks and a delicate wooden coffee table piled high with books, including “Dog Painting: The European Breeds,” “Dog Painting: A Social History of the Dog in Art” and “A Breed Apart.”

Above the fireplace, centered over a mantel of dark wood and darker marble, the dog theme continues, with a painting of what appears to be a chocolate Labrador retriever. Nearby, a painting of a blond toddler playing with another dog — also large, but this time shaggy — hangs in a gilded frame. In the library, two smaller dogs reside together in a frame above a sofa.

And if you were to take them off the wall, you would find a little white tag behind every one. Even the patio furniture, the dog dishes in the kitchen, and bottles of gin and Cognac in a mirrored bar in the corner of the library are tagged and numbered. Once the house is sold, its contents will be auctioned to the public, in what will surely be one of Long Island’s best-attended tag sales.

Despite these little touches, the house generally does not feel like a criminal’s lair. Indeed, like any other high-priced home for sale, it has been carefully staged to show its prettiest face to potential buyers. A bit of landscaping was done here, some robes were hung in an immense bathroom over there, and there was even an elaborate picnic spread arranged in a basket on the kitchen table, complete with checkered napkins and cutlery.

“This was staged with, believe it or not, my recommendations and the hard work of the U.S. Marshals office,” said Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates, the broker brought in to sell the property. “Every single book in here was actually taken off the shelf, tagged and numbered, and then put back.”

One book, however, was left out, prominently displayed on a table in the library: “A Code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy,” by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.

As a part of the staging, the asset forfeiture division of the Marshals Service tries to remove personal effects, like clothing, that might walk away during a tour, or might remind potential buyers of who once padded down these hallways in his slippers. A small bedroom is stacked high with cardboard boxes full of clothing and other items that will eventually go to auction. Photographs removed from frames are returned to the family.

Even with a name as notorious as “Madoff,” there is no felon discount on a home like this. Bernard Madoff’s Manhattan apartment was sold for $8 million and Peter Madoff’s Park Avenue two-bedroom for $4.6 million, prices in line with the market at the time. Some personal belongings can even fetch inflated prices, like Bernard Madoff’s Mets jacket, which sold at auction in 2009 for $14,500.

Some potential buyers who have come through the Old Westbury house have been curious about the Madoffs, Mr. Elliott said. But for his part, he tries to think about the scandal as little as possible.

“The less I know about a situation, for me, the better,” Mr. Elliott said. “My job as the real estate broker on this is to get the victims as much money as humanly possible.”

Mr. Elliott has received offers on the property, but none has been accepted yet. When the house is finally sold, the proceeds will go to a victims compensation fund administered by the Justice Department, which has so far recovered more than $2.3 billion for Madoff victims. A separate fund for property and proceeds associated with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities is being administered by Irving Picard and has recovered $9.345 billion.

Though Peter and Marion Madoff’s primary residence was in Manhattan, they owned the house in Old Westbury for more than 20 years, and despite best efforts, that amount of history can be difficult to completely scrub away. Last week, there were still a few signs of the lives lived in that house before: a pair of reading glasses on a marble countertop; two jars of marmalade left in a bare refrigerator; and inside a long pearl box in Mrs. Madoff’s bathroom, a single artificial fingernail tip, painted a warm shade of cotton candy pink.

Popular American career mythology posits that those who make their living with their hands can–with sufficient hard work and determination–one day “trade up” and become doctors, lawyers or other white-collar professionals.

Matt Heller turned that model firmly on its ear.

Some years back, the 1986 graduate of Los Gatos High School was well established as an attorney. But now, instead of donning tailored three-piece suits each morning, Heller pulls on a straw hat, shorts and flip-flops and heads over to Sakamoto Plants and Landscape Design.

As one of the new owners of the nursery, which has been providing fabulous flora to locals for more than three decades, Heller (who’s known as “the plant whisperer”) spends his days tending to flowers, shrubs and trees. And he’s never been happier with his choice of vocation.

After Heller graduated from Los Gatos High, where he’d been a member of the water polo and tennis teams, there was never any doubt: College and an advanced degree were in his future. While working toward his diploma from USC, he was selected for a fellowship program in law, and also served as an intern at a law firm in Pasadena. Then came Santa Clara University’s School of Law, graduation and Heller’s launch into practice.

But not long after hanging out his shingle, Heller found himself dreaming of other occupations. “I was very unhappy with law,” he said. “After a while I quit and came back up here, and was sort of

aimless for a while.”

At one point, in a move that baffled friends and family alike, Heller took a job with Dr. Paul Sakamoto, who’d run the Los Gatos nursery for 30 years.

“That was a 180-degree turn, for sure,” he said. “I wasn’t aware that I might be able to turn my newfound passion for plants into a revenue-generating concern.”

That passion, Heller added, was ignited when he was 12, and his family was living in Honduras.

“My dad was the only doctor on the island, with 18,000 natives,” he said. “It was a great experience; we’d go on hikes in the jungle and hack our way through with machetes.

“Also, my mom was very into gardening, and we always had fresh flowers and fresh vegetables in the house. So I’ve always had a profound respect for nature and all growing things.”

Committing himself to tending to that growth, Heller undertook an apprenticeship with Saratoga nurseryman Ed Carman, who enjoyed fame as the first person to import kiwi vines into California and for his ability to make rare plants flourish.

Heller followed up with a stint landscaping Lithia Park in Ashland, Ore., and then a two-year assignment overseeing a bonsai boutique at Allied Arts in Menlo Park.

As his career played out, Heller heard via the grapevine (so to speak) that Sakamoto intended to retire. Heller paid his former employer a visit, and was surprised to see signs advertising 50 percent off all plants.

“Paul basically asked if I wanted to take the nursery over. I told him I’d love to, but didn’t have the financial resources to make that happen,” said Heller.

But two weeks later, Heller received a phone call from a fellow Wildcat, Hugh Parker (also class of ’86), who floated an intriguing proposal: If Heller would consider going into partnership with him, and doing the day-to-day operation of the nursery, Parker (co-owner of SV Homes and a former high-tech sales executive) would write the check. “Of course I jumped at the opportunity to do what I love,” Heller said.

The arrival of spring this year found the two former classmates welcoming their first customers to the nursery, which remains faithful in environment and inventory to its heritage. Heller now offers full-scale landscape design, installation and maintenance services, specializing in Japanese gardens, and provides an array of both native and exotic flowers and shrubs. He also manages to nurse even the sickliest plant back to life, a talent that led Julia, his wife and marketing director, to award him the title of “plant whisperer.”

“It’s a little embarrassing when I hear someone calling me that,” admitted Heller. “But I guess a lot of people have remarked about how I seem to have very close ties with plants. For me it’s a really natural connection.”

Heller met his mate at a bookstore in Los Gatos 10 years ago. After a four-month courtship he married the statuesque native of Russia, who has served for the past seven years as a special assistant to former San Francisco mayor (and former California Assembly Speaker) Willie Brown.

A model and actress who has appeared in a number of film and television roles, she brings what Heller calls “intelligence, wit and strong marketing skills” to the task of branding the nursery and its management.

“This whole ‘plant whisperer’ thing wouldn’t have been cultivated without her,” Heller laughed.

Heller’s and his wife’s cultivation skills will be on display on June 1 when Sakamoto Plants Landscape Design will host a special community event aimed at helping green-thumbers give their gardens some extra star power. Titled “From Drab to Fab: How to Create Brake-Stopping Curb Appeal That Will Make Every Buyer Want You … Even If You’re Not Selling,” the morning session will feature interior designer Alice D. Chan, co-host of HGTV’s new Power Broker real estate show.

The event is free, but space is limited. Visit curbappeal-eorg.eventbrite.com to register.

Sakamoto Plants Landscape Design (which will be renamed Los Gatos Plants Landscape Design) is located at 15567 Camino Del Cerro in Los Gatos. For more information visit sakamotolg.com or call 408.827.4115.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- During the Renaissance, gardens and their flora were used as religious symbols in art, as signs of social status, or simply enjoyed for their aesthetic value. Whether part of a grandiose villa or a feature of a common kitchen yard, gardens were planted and treasured by people at all social levels. In a variety of texts, manuscript artists depicted gardens, and their illustrations attest to the Renaissance spirit for the careful study of the natural world. In Gardens of the Renaissance, on view May 28–August 11, 2013 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, visitors are given a glimpse into how people at the time pictured, used, and enjoyed these idyllic green spaces.

The exhibition features over 20 manuscript illuminations, a painting, a drawing and a photograph from the Getty Museum’s permanent collection, as well as loaned works from the Getty Research Institute and private collectors James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell. In addition to the exhibition, the Getty’s Central Garden will be planted with flowers and greenery commonly seen during the Renaissance in Europe, with their care overseen by Central Garden supervisor Michael DeHart.

“This exhibition celebrates the Renaissance garden, which inherited the traditions established by the medieval monastic cloister and provided the foundation for the extravagant gardens of the Baroque period, such as Louis XIV’s renowned Versailles,” explains Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “The exhibition will include a number of exceptional objects from the Museum’s collection that reflect the Renaissance appreciation for magnificent foliage, brilliant color, and landscape design. We are also in a unique position to share with visitors living examples of typical Renaissance plantings through our own garden, which I’m sure will bring the exhibition to life and greatly appeal to the many visitors who come to enjoy our spectacular gardens and landscaping.”

Gardens in Word and Image
During the Renaissance, when gardens were planted in great number, it was only natural that garden imagery permeated the pages of manuscripts and printed books, from popular romances and philosophical treatises to medicinal and devotional texts. As literary settings, gardens were idyllic spaces where lovers met, courtiers retreated from city life, and adventurers sought an earthly paradise. Religious symbolism was common even in floral imagery, as in French artist Jean Bourdichon’s The Adoration of the Magi (about 1480–85), where grapes, roses, blue speedwell, and red anemones all signify some aspect of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Although the garden is already represented in art from the Middle Ages, Renaissance depictions show an increased concern for naturalism and the documentation of new and rare plant species. One of the best-known examples of this is by Flemish artist Joris Hoefngael who—at the bequest of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II—illuminated a book of calligraphy samples with depictions of plants, animals, and insects. In Insect, Tulip, Caterpillar, Spider, Pear (about 1591–96), Hoefnagel painted a pink-and-yellow-striped tulip with spellbinding precision, thus preserving a floral record of species from as far away as modern-day Turkey and Peru.

Gardens of the Bible
The story of Christian salvation is rooted in gardens, from Adam and Eve’s original sin in the Garden of Eden to Christ’s resurrection in the Garden of Gethsemane. Renaissance theologians and adventurers sought to discover the location of Eden, and pilgrims risked the dangers of travel to visit the gardens that Christ had frequented. For most other devout Christians, tranquil manuscript images of Mary in a garden facilitated devotion and prayer. Artists often represented Eden as a verdant orchard with high walls, while the gardens associated with Mary and Christ tend to be smaller and enclosed by a simple wooden fence.

“In a society dominated by the Catholic Church, gardens were integral to a Christian visual tradition,” says Bryan C. Keene, assistant curator in the manuscripts department at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition offers religious context for much of the exquisite garden imagery seen in manuscript pages and elsewhere in art of the time.”

A distinctive engagement of religion and nature occurs in the representation of Christ as a gardener. According to the Bible, after the Crucifixion, Christ was buried on a plot of land containing a garden. His follower, Mary Magdalene, initially mistakes Christ for a gardener, but rejoices when she recognizes him. In an image by Flemish artist Lieven van Lathem (about 1469), Mary Magdalene kneels before the resurrected Christ, who is depicted holding a shovel to represent her initial misidentification. In a pen and gray black ink drawing of Christ as the Gardener (about 1470—1490) by the Upper Rhenish Master, Christ is seen again with a shovel amidst some grass, and offers a gesture as if to tell Mary Magdalene (not pictured) not to hold on to him since he must ascend to heaven.

Gardens at Court
What is an Italian villa or French château without a garden? In the Renaissance, gardens complemented the architectural harmony of courtly estates through plantings along a central axis and beds of herbs and flowers arranged in geometric patterns. The combination of sculptures, fountains, and topiaries in gardens not only expressed the patron’s control over nature but also expressed the Renaissance ideal that art is shaped by art.

In manuscripts, a courtly garden could serve as a backdrop that conveyed a ruler’s status or as a stage for activities both reputable and scandalous. In Jean Bourdichon’s Bathsheba Bathing (1498–99), Bathsheba’s sensuous nude figure seduces not only King David at the palace window but likely also the patron of the manuscript that contained this leaf, King Louis XII of France. The biblical story that inspired this image does not mention a garden, but artists often placed Bathsheba in one because a garden traditionally represented female virtue.

Gardens of the Renaissance is on view May 28–August 11, 2013 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center. The exhibition is curated by Bryan Keene, assistant curator in the manuscripts department.