The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthiest art institution. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and features pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and photographs from the inception of photography through present day from all over the world. The original Getty museum, the Getty Villa, is located in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and displays art from

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and Etruria.

History

In 1974, Jean Paul Getty opened a museum in a re-creation of the

Villa of the Papyri The Villa of the Papyri (, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman Empire, Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after its un ...

Herculaneum Herculaneum is an ancient Rome, ancient Roman town located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like the nearby city of ...

on his property in Malibu, California. In 1982, the museum became the richest in the world when it inherited US$1.2 billion. In 1983, after an economic downturn in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, the Getty Museum acquired 144 illuminated medieval manuscripts from the financially struggling Ludwig Collection in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

. In 1996, John Russell, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', said of the collection, "One of the finest holdings of its kind ever assembled, it is quite certainly the most important that was in private hands." In 1997, the museum moved to its current location in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Malibu museum, renamed the " Getty Villa", was renovated and reopened in 2006. Many museums turned to their existing social media presences to engage their audience online during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Inspired by the Rijksmuseum in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and Instagram accounts such as the Dutch ''Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine'' ("between art and quarantine") and ''Covid Classics'', the Getty sponsored the ''Getty Museum Challenge'', inviting people to use everyday objects to recreate works of art and share their creations on social media, prompting thousands of submissions. The museum was among those singled out for particular praise by industry analysts for their successful social media content strategy during the shutdown, both for the challenge and for incorporating its works into the popular video game '' Animal Crossing''. Following the 2025 Southern California wildfires, in April 2025, the Getty sold $500 million in bonds to raise money to protect its collection from fire.

Controversies with Italy and Greece

In the 1970s and 1980s, the curator, Jiří Frel, designed a tax manipulation scheme which expanded the museum collection of antiquities, essentially buying artifacts of dubious provenance, as well as a number of artifacts generally considered fakes, such as the Getty kouros. In 1984, Frel was demoted, and in 1986, he resigned. The Getty is involved in a controversy regarding proper title to some of the artwork in its collection. The museum's previous curator of

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean such as the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt, and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Ancient Persia (Iran). Artifact ...

, Marion True, hired by Frel, was indicted in Italy in 2005, along with famed dealer Robert E. Hecht, on criminal charges relating to trafficking in stolen antiquities. Similar charges have been addressed by the Greek authorities. The primary evidence in the case came from the 1995 raid of a

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, warehouse which had contained a fortune in stolen artifacts. Italian art dealer Giacomo Medici was arrested in 1997. His operation was thought to be "one of the largest and most sophisticated antiquities networks in the world, responsible for illegally digging up and spiriting away thousands of top-drawer pieces and passing them on to the most elite end of the international art market". In 2005 True was forced to tender her resignation by the Board of Trustees, which announced her early retirement. Italy allowed the statute of limitations of the charges filed against her to expire in October 2010. In a letter to the J. Paul Getty Trust in December 2006, True stated that she was being made to "carry the burden" for practices which were known, approved, and condoned by the Getty's board of directors. True is currently under investigation by Greek authorities over the acquisition of a 2,500-year-old funerary wreath, that was illegally excavated and smuggled outside of Greece. The wreath, along with a 6th-century BC statue of a kore, have been returned to Greece and are currently exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. A 2,400-year-old, black limestone stele and a marble votive relief dating from about 490 BC were also returned. The Succulent Garden at the Getty Museum b

The Succulent Garden at the Getty Museum b

In November 2006, the director of the museum, Michael Brand, announced that 26 disputed pieces were to be returned to Italy, but not the Victorious Youth, which is still claimed by the Italian authorities. In 2007, the Los Angeles J. Paul Getty Museum was forced to return 40 artifacts, including a 5th-century BC statue of the goddess

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

, which was looted from Morgantina, an ancient Greek settlement in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. The Getty Museum resisted the requests of the Italian government for nearly two decades, only to admit later that "there might be 'problems'" attached to the acquisition." In 2006, Italian senior cultural official Giuseppe Proietti said: "The negotiations haven't made a single step forward." Only after he suggested the Italian government "to take cultural sanctions against the Getty, suspending all cultural cooperation," did the J. Paul Getty Museum return the antiquities. In another unrelated case in 1999, the Getty Museum had to hand over three antiquities to Italy after determining they were stolen. The objects included a Greek red-figure kylix from the 5th-century BC, signed by the painter Onesimos and the potter Euphronios as potter, looted from the Etruscan site of

Cerveteri Cerveteri () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Italian region of Lazio. Known by the ancient Romans as Caere, and previously by the Etruscans as Caisra or Cisra, and as Agylla (or ) by the Greeks, ...

; a torso of the god Mithra from the 2nd-century AD, and the head of a youth by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos. In 2016, the terracotta head of the Greek god

Hades Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea ...

was returned to Sicily (

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

). The archaeological artifact was looted from Morgantina in the 1970s. The Getty museum purchased the terracotta head of Hades in 1985 from the New York collector Maurice Tempelsman, who had purchased it from the London dealer Robin Symes. Getty records show the museum paid $530,000 for it. In December 2016, the head of Hades was added to the collection of the archaeological museum of Aidone, where it joined the statue of

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

, the mother of his consort

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Persephone ( ; , classical pronunciation: ), also called Kore ( ; ) or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the Greek underworld, underworld afte ...

. Sicilian archaeologists found a blue curl that was missing from Hades' beard, and so it proved the origin of the terracotta head.

Selected paintings at the Getty Center

File:Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci) (Italian, Florentine) - Portrait of a Halberdier (Francesco Guardi?) - Google Art Project.jpg, Pontormo, ''Portrait of a Halberdier'', 1528 File:Virgin and Child with Sts. Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist by Parmigianino.jpg, Parmigianino, ''Virgin with Child, St. John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene'', about 1530 File:Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian - Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos, Marquis of Vasto, in Armor with a Page - Google Art Project.jpg,

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

, ''Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto'', 1533 File:Virgin and Child with Sts. Elizabeth and John the Baptist by Agnolo Bronzino.jpg,

Agnolo Bronzino Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italians, Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or r ...

, ''Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist'', 1540-1545 File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Entombment - 93.PA.9 - J. Paul Getty Museum.jpg, Peter Paul Rubens, ''The Entombment'', 1612 File:Danaë, by Orazio Gentileschi.jpg, Orazio Gentileschi, ''Danaë'', 1621 File:Rembrandt laughing.jpg,

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

, '' Rembrandt Laughing'', 1628 File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch - An Old Man in Military Costume - Google Art Project.jpg,

, ''An Old Man in Military Costume'', 1630 File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_-_The_Abduction_of_Europa_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg,

, ''The Abduction of Europa'', 1632 File:Nicolas Poussin (French - Landscape with a Calm - Google Art Project.jpg, Nicolas Poussin, ''Landscape in Calm Weather'', 1651 File:Jean-Antoine_Watteau,_The_Italian_Comedians_-_Getty_Museum.jpg, Jean-Antoine Watteau, ''The Italian Comedians'', 1720 File:Canaletto Grand Canal from Palazzo Flangini - JPGM.jpg, Canaletto, '' The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola'', about 1738 File:Jacques-Louis David - The Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte - Google Art Project.jpg,

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

, '' The Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte'', 1821 File:Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Francisco de Goya) (Spanish - Bullfight, Suerte de Varas - Google Art Project.jpg, Francisco de Goya, '' Bullfight'', 1824 File:Joseph Mallord William Turner (British - Modern Rome-Campo Vaccino - Google Art Project.jpg, J. M. W. Turner, '' Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino'', 1839 File:Portrait_of_Madame_Brunet_(also_known_as_Young_Woman_in_1860),_painted_in_1860-1863,_and_reworked_by_1867_by_Manet,_Getty.jpg,

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

, ''Portrait of Madame Brunet'', 1867 File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French - La Promenade - Google Art Project.jpg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, ''La Promenade'', 1870 File:Claude Monet (French - Sunrise (Marine) - Google Art Project.jpg,

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

, ''Sunrise (Marine)'', 1873 File:Gustave Caillebotte - Jeune homme à sa fenêtre (B 32).jpg, Gustave Caillebotte, '' Young Man at His Window'', 1876 File:Édouard Manet, The Rue Mosnier with Flags, 1878.jpg,

, ', 1878 File:Edouard Manet - Le Printemps - RW372.jpg,

, ''Spring'', 1881 File:Christ%27s_Entry_into_Brussels_in_1889.jpg, James Ensor, '' Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889'', 1888 File:Vincent van Gogh - Irises (1889).jpg,

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

, '' Irises'', 1889 File:Paul Gauguin (French - Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) - Google Art Project.jpg, Paul Gauguin, '' Arii Matamoe (The Royal End)'', 1892 File:Paul Cézanne - Still Life with Apples - 96.PA.8 - J. Paul Getty Museum.jpg,

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

, ''Still Life with Apples'', 1893 File:Paul Cézanne (French - Young Italian Woman at a Table - Google Art Project.jpg,

, ''Young Italian Woman at a Table'', 1895

Selected objects at the Getty Center

File:Lieven van Lathem (Flemish - Saint George and the Dragon - Google Art Project.jpg, Lieven van Lathem, a page from ''Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies'', 1471 File:Study of a Mourning Woman by Michelangelo Buonarroti.jpg,

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

, ''Study of a Mourning Woman'', 1500–05 File:Giambologna_Female_Figure.jpg, Giambologna, '' Female Figure (Giambologna)'', 1571–73 File:Bust of Pope Paul V.jpg,

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...

, '' Bust of Pope Paul V'', 1621 File:Getty Museum SW04.jpg, Ernst Rietschel, ''Bust of Felix Mendelssohn'', 1848 File:Getty Museum Attributed to André-Charles Boulle 1642 - 1732.jpg,

André-Charles Boulle André-Charles Boulle (11 November 164229 February 1732), ''le joailler du meuble'' (the "furniture jeweller"), became the most famous French Cabinet making, cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry, also known as "inlay". ...

, . File:A cabinet-on-stand attributed to André-Charles Boulle at the Getty Museum.jpg,

, .

References

External links