Ciccarello, who founded a successful pharmaceutical distribution business, says that he first became interested in the Arts and Crafts movement when he saw a cabinetmaker crafting a bookcase copied from one designed by Gustav Stickley, and decided to buy the original. He has been collecting since the early 1990s, purchasing "pottery, metalwork, lighting, tile, built-ins such as fireplaces, even entire rooms, tiled walls and all," in addition to the furniture that first caught his eye. More recently, he began to collect photographers of the early 20th century Pictorialist movement, and the Photo-Secession movement, including Alfred Stieglitz.
