The Getty Villa Grounds Catch Fire Amid the Pacific Palisades Blaze
The grounds of the Getty Villa caught fire on Tuesday as a blaze continued tearing through the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. The museum and its staff were not harmed, according to a statement issued today by the Getty, which said that the Getty Villa will remain closed through January 12.
“Irrigation was immediately deployed throughout the grounds Tuesday morning,” the statement said. “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.”
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The Getty Villa is one of the two main venues of the Getty Museum, one of the biggest institutions in Los Angeles. It houses many of the Getty’s most important antiquities from ancient Greece and Rome.
The villa is regularly closed on Tuesdays, so there were no members of the public present today when the fire neared the museum. But Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in her statement that the Getty Villa “swiftly closed” on Tuesday, with non-emergency staff disallowed from entering.
On Wednesday, the Getty Center, the Villa’s sister museum, also closed, citing a desire on the museum’s part to “help alleviate traffic in the area.”
Some 30,000 people were evacuated by officials due to the wildfire, which may gain in intensity as a result of winds forecasted for tonight and early tomorrow morning. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
Per Californian officials, the fire has covered 1,200 acres so far. Earlier in the day, officials said it had only touched 300 acres of space.
Fleming said that “some trees and vegetation” on the Getty Villa campus had burned, but the collection and all staff members, both there and at the Getty Center, were safe.
“We are grateful for the tireless work of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and other agencies to keep the Villa and its staff safe, as well as for the on-site presence of fire trucks throughout the day,” she wrote.
At least one other nearby museum reported no damage on Wednesday morning: the Eames House, a modernist home constructed by the married architects Charles and Ray Eames.
“While currently at risk, Case Study House 8—the historic Eames House built in 1949—as of 8 am PST this morning was unharmed by the wildfires raging in the Pacific Palisades, but the windblown fires continue to claim other homes in the community and bring the fires nearer,” Lucia Dewey Atwood, executive director of the Eames Foundation, said in a statement to ARTnews. “We are closely monitoring the situation and the Eames Foundation has taken every precaution to protect the site.”
The foundation said it had removed “a small number of objects” from the house, which was forced to evacuate. The house is currently closed to the public.
Update, 1/8/25, 12:45 p.m.: This article, which first published on January 7 at 9:18 p.m., has been updated to include more information about the status of the Getty Center and the Eames House.
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