The wildfire currently tearing its way through the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades reached the Getty Villa on Tuesday 7 January, the Los Angeles Times reported. Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement that ‘some trees and vegetation on site have burned, but staff and the collection remain safe’.
‘Fortunately, Getty had made extensive efforts to clear brush from the surrounding area as part of its fire mitigation efforts throughout the year,’ Fleming stated, adding that ‘museum galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke by state-of-the-art air handling systems. The double-walled construction of the galleries also provides significant protection for the collections.’
The Getty Villa, built in 1974 and reopened in 2006 after a nine-year renovation, is part of the J. Paul Getty Museum. It houses around 44,000 works from the Museum’s collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities.
Since breaking out on Tuesday morning, the 3,000-acre Palisades fire has forced more than 30,000 to evacuate the affluent coastal area. The museum will remain closed until 13 January.
