Latest news with #J.PaulGettyTrust
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Getty Villa to Reopen June 27 With Major Mycenaean Exhibition After Palisades Fire Closure
After more than five months of closure due to the Palisades Fire, the Getty Villa Museum in Pacific Palisades is set to reopen to the public on Friday, June 27. The museum, modeled after a Roman country house and home to a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, has been closed since January 7, since wildfire threats forced an emergency shutdown. Now, after extensive recovery and safety efforts, the Villa will welcome visitors back on a limited four-day schedule: Friday through Monday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.'It is with the utmost gratitude and appreciation for Getty staff, first responders, and other agencies that we can announce the reopening of the Villa to the public,' said Katherine Fleming, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. 'Without their tireless efforts, we would not be in the position we are in today.'On the morning of the evacuation, 17 members of Getty's facilities, grounds, and security teams volunteered to remain on-site to protect the museum and its collection. Thanks to their efforts and coordination with the Los Angeles Fire Department, the museum was spared significant structural damage. However, the grounds still suffered: Getty crews removed over 1,300 fire-damaged trees and completed a deep clean of both indoor and outdoor spaces, along with system flushes and filter replacements. Visitors may notice the difference. The landscape has less vegetation, and some burn damage remains on the outer edges of the property. Due to road closures, the Villa is currently only accessible via Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), with no access from Sunset Boulevard. To manage both fire recovery and local traffic, the Getty is capping attendance at 500 guests per day. Timed-entry reservations are now available online, and parking remains $ reopening comes with a major new show: The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece, the first major North American exhibition focused on the Mycenaean civilization. On view from June 27 through January 12, 2026, the show will spotlight over 230 artifacts from Messenia—long considered a hub of Bronze Age Greece—including clay tablets in Linear B, the earliest form of written Greek, and the Pylos Combat Agate, an intricate sealstone regarded as one of the most extraordinary pieces of Aegean exhibition replaces Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, which was cut short by the fire. A virtual tour of that exhibition remains available on Getty's returning this fall is Getty Villa's beloved Outdoor Classical Theater, with its 19th annual production, Oedipus the King, Mama!, a co-production with the Troubadour Theater Company. Additional public programming, both online and in person, will accompany the Kingdom of Pylos exhibition throughout its run.'We look forward to welcoming visitors back to explore our newest exhibition… and much more of our treasured antiquities collection this summer,' said Timothy Potts, director of the Getty more information or to book a free timed-entry ticket, visit
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Getty Villa Museum to reopen in June following closure due to Palisades Fire
The Getty Villa Museum will reopen to the public on Friday, June 27, following a months-long closure due to the Palisades Fire, Getty officials announced Monday. The Villa was evacuated and closed the morning of Jan. 7 as flames from the Palisades Fire neared the site. Since then, Getty staff have worked alongside local agencies to test the area and ensure the safety of the grounds and buildings before welcoming back visitors. 'It is with the utmost gratitude and appreciation for Getty staff, first responders, and other agencies that we can announce the reopening of the Villa to the public,' Katherine Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement. 'Without their tireless efforts, we would not be in the position we are in today.' The museum will operate on a limited schedule — open Fridays through Mondays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — in an effort to ease traffic congestion on Pacific Coast Highway. The Villa remains inaccessible via Sunset Boulevard, and guests are advised to enter through PCH. Daily attendance will be capped at 500 visitors, with free timed-entry tickets now available for reservation online. Parking will remain at $25. The Villa will reopen with a new major exhibition, 'The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece', on view from June 27 through Jan. 12, 2026. 'The exhibition will showcase over 230 works of art and artifacts from Messenia, an epicenter of the Mycenaean civilization that flourished in Late Bronze Age Greece,' according to the museum. The previous exhibition, 'Ancient Thrace and the Classical World,' was cut short by the fire. Getty has since released a virtual tour to allow visitors to explore the collection online. Getty's Outdoor Classical Theater will also return this fall, with its 19th annual production: Oedipus the King, Mama!' co-produced by Troubadour Theater Company. The Villa's public programs schedule will continue, with a robust slate of talks and events, both in-person and online, focused on the upcoming Kingdom of Pylos exhibition. More information about the reopening can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I toured the Getty Villa weeks after 17 employees fought flames from the Los Angeles fires. Here's how it became an anti-fire fortress.
The Getty Villa survived the Pacific Palisades fire, aided by its construction and technology. The museum's staff also spent days protecting the property and its artifacts from flames and smoke. Photos from the Getty Villa after the fire show what it takes to keep an at-risk estate safe. When fire razed the Pacific Palisades in January, the Getty Villa proved itself to be practically impenetrable. Built like a fortress and outfitted with state-of-the-art firefighting infrastructure, this museum, a replica of an ancient Roman estate, remained standing as nearby homes burned down. The facility's emergency preparedness specialist, Les Borsay, gave Business Insider a tour of the villa just weeks after he and a team of about 17 employees fought the flames encroaching on the property. "It's not luck that this place is still here," he said. In an era of megafires that can threaten urban areas like Los Angeles, the Getty Villa shows what it can take to keep an at-risk estate safe. The Palisades fire sped down a hillside toward the Getty Villa on January 7, starting days of firefighting. "It was a little shocking how fast it moved," said Borsay, who was on-site when the fire broke out. The museum is closed to visitors on Tuesdays, so there were no guests to evacuate. The villa is a museum of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It houses a collection of ancient Greek and Roman art. The trust possesses the largest endowment of any museum in the world, estimated at more than $8 billion in 2023. It also includes the Getty Center, an art museum 13 miles away in the Brentwood area, which has survived its own brushes with fire. Most buildings on the property are made of concrete with a tile roof, which is quite fire-resistant. "Everybody always told me about the James Bond-like construction of our sites," Katherine E. Fleming, the president and CEO of the Getty Trust, said in a press release after the fire. "And then I actually saw it in action. It is pretty astonishing." Still, the facility staff had already sprung into action when they heard a fire had started in the Palisades that morning. They wanted to prevent as many spot fires as possible — ignitions of vegetation, cars, or smaller wood structures — and protect the museum's art from smoke or changes in humidity. Staff also moved cars into the underground concrete parking garage. They taped up doors to prevent smoke from seeping into rooms where ancient artwork is kept. The particulate matter in smoke can damage art and ancient artifacts. They shut off the museum's HVAC system to outside air. If pressure indoors was lower than pressure outdoors, the system could suck in smoke. The fire was approaching the Ranch House, which came with the property when J. Paul Getty bought it after World War II. He added a second floor and filled the house with his growing art collection. All vents into the house's attic area are fitted with mesh, Borsay said, to prevent embers from flying in and starting fires inside. Ignition-prevention experts have told Business Insider they recommend homeowners install noncombustible, eighth-inch mesh screening on all vents on the outside of their homes. Still, the fire's proximity made Borsay nervous until the Los Angeles Fire Department dropped water to snuff it out. Fire trucks went in and out of the villa that day because of its central location and 50,000-gallon underground water tank. "If we have a place that's safe, a place with water, they're going to come in and use it to be able to protect us and our surrounding area," Borsay said. Sharing the water is the neighborly thing to do, he said, but also, "if our neighbors start going down, that could impact us." Fire hydrants across the museum estate can help fight any fires on-site. They draw from the underground water tank, which feeds automatic sprinklers inside the Getty buildings. Staff members took turns putting on N95s and goggles, grabbing fire extinguishers, and spending up to 30 minutes outside spraying spot fires. None of them were trained firefighters, but they all had basic fire extinguisher training. Bushes, vines, and trees were catching fire from all the flying embers. Putting out those fires early helped prevent the flames from spreading. Borsay said everybody was allowed to leave but many people chose to stay behind to protect the estate and its ancient statues and artifacts. "This is everybody's shared cultural history that we're the stewards of," he said. Unlike the Ranch House, the villa building was "built like a vault," Borsay said. The villa's concrete and travertine construction makes its walls virtually unburnable. "Concrete's lovely. The brutalists were right," Borsay said. Getty had the villa constructed in the 1960s and '70s as a replica of the Villa dei Papiri in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum. In AD 79, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius buried the city and the villa. "He knew that this place burned," Borsay said of J. Paul Getty. "I think that that's part of the reason why it was built the way it was." Fire is a natural part of the Santa Monica mountains' ecosystem, so brush fires are common. Fire-rated doors also protect the artworks and artifacts inside the building. "You can imagine some of our lenders were a little concerned," Borsay said, so he sent them videos of the art inside to show it was safe. When fire burned through a corridor of trees on the estate, Borsay wasn't worried about the villa building itself. He was, however, keeping an eye on a nearby elevator shaft. "All around this elevator it was just huge flames. That was probably the part I was most concerned about," Borsay said. It's an outdoor elevator, going from the estate's entrance to the outdoor auditorium, but it's also connected to indoor areas. So if fire had gotten into the elevator, it could have spread inside an auxiliary building. Windows are another major vulnerability for any structure, so keeping them clear of foliage is crucial. Borsay said the museum groundskeepers had been careful about that. Landscaping is key to preventing the spread of fire. Wildfires often spread to new buildings through embers falling and gathering in flammable materials — like dry bushes, firewood piles, or dead leaves clogging roof gutters. That's why ignition experts recommend keeping up with yard work and maintaining a 5-foot fuel-free zone around a house or building. The museum has two gardens. Both were well watered, so even as embers rained down, they didn't burn. "We kept an eye on it, but I was less concerned about it," Borsay said. "And again, even if this area burns, it's going to be pretty safe inside." The villa emerged ashy, but none of its structures burned. The Palisades fire burned for 24 days. Getty staff members began the long process of replacing damaged irrigation and sprinkler equipment, cleaning up ash, and monitoring the facility for looters or new fires. Flames even reemerged on a hill near the parking lot a week after the fire had passed. Embers had been smoldering in the dirt. By the time Business Insider visited the facility in February, most of the ash had already been cleared. There's still a lot of work to do. Conservators are assessing the art to ensure it wasn't damaged. The surrounding area is undergoing its own cleanup and rebuilding process. It's unclear when the museum will reopen. Even so, the property is a world away from when it was covered in ash and soot. "It's amazing how clean it looks like right now," Borsay said, "because I'll tell you in the days after, it just was a serious mess." Read the original article on Business Insider
