relocate to the United States of America. Career in the United States Moretti arrived in New York City and opened a studio. Soon, Moretti was working on his first commission in America, sculpture for Marble House, the seasonal residence of William K. and Alva Vanderbilt in Newport, Rhode Island. On this project, Moretti worked with Richard Morris Hunt to produce the interior's marble friezes and statuary, including work on bas-reliefs of the architect himself and Jules Hardouin Mansart, the master architect for Louis XIV during the construction of Palace of Versailles; and which stood side by side on the mezzanine level of the staircase. Commissions in Pittsburgh After working on the Vanderbilt estate, Moretti became well known in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, maintaining a presence there from 1895 until 1923. Edward Bigelow, Pittsburgh's director of public works commissioned Moretti in 1885 for works in Schenley Park. Moretti immediately recognized the potential of Pittsburgh's rugged terrain for such a vast project. Arthur Hamerschlag, the first president of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, also did much to popularize Moretti's work in Pittsburgh. Moretti sculpted the family of bronze figures atop granite columns at the entrance to Highland Park, a pair of boys taming horses at the Stanton Avenue entrance to the park, a statue of Stephen Foster and an African-American bard playing "Uncle Ned" paid through children's donated pennies in the park, and a marble fountain above the N. St. Clair stone steps entrance to the park. In Pittsburgh's civic center of Oakland, he cast a bronze tribute to Bigelow, four bronze panthers for the Panther Hollow Bridge, the University of Pittsburgh bronze panther mascot, and Hygiea as a tribute to the county's doctors in World War I, as well as numerous tablets, plaques, and award statuettes. Moretti has been called the "go-to civic sculptor during Pittsburgh's City Beautiful period." When Bigelow failed to get reelected, Moretti's commission was discarded by the new city officers. Relocation to Alabama The first of many failed business ventures for Moretti was in 1897, when he and fellow Italian immigrant Riccardo Bertelli (future husband of actress Ida Conquest) launched a small bronze foundry in December of that year with the help of a $20,000 loan from another Italian émigré, Celestino Piva, a wealthy silk importer. However, in two years the company collapsed and Piva withdrew support. Yet Bertelli bought out Moretti's share, reorganized the business, and renamed it