J. Paul Getty Museum

History

In 1974, Jean Paul Getty opened a museum in a re-creation of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum 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, the Getty Museum acquired 144 illuminated medieval manuscripts from the financially struggling Ludwig Collection in Aachen.

In 1996, John Russell, writing in The New York Times, 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. Inspired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam 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, 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, 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 out 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.

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, which was looted from Morgantina, an ancient Greek settlement in Sicily. 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 that the Italian government should "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; 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 was returned to Sicily (Italy). 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, the mother of his consort Persephone. 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:Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro, Fra Giovanni da Fiesole) - Saint Francis and a Bishop Saint - 92.PB.111.1 - J. Paul Getty Museum.jpg|Fra Angelico Saint Francis and a Bishop Saint, 1420 File:Rogier van der Weyden (workshop of) - Portrait of Isabella of Portugal.jpg|Circle of Rogier van der Weyden Portrait of Isabella of Portugal, 1450 File:Vittore carpaccio, caccia in laguna, 1490-1495 ca, getty museum.jpg|Vittore Carpaccio Hunting on the Lagoon, 1455-1465 File:Mantegna Magi.jpg|Andrea Mantegna Adoration of the Magi, 1495 File:Circle of Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) - Portrait of a Young Man in Red - 78.PB.364 - J. Paul Getty Museum.jpg|Circle of Raphael Portrait of a Young Man in Red, 1505 File:Fra Bartolommeo - The Rest on the Flight into Egypt with Saint John the Baptist, about 1509, 96.PB.15.jpg|Fra Bartolomeo The Rest on the Flight into Egypt with Saint John the Baptist, 1509 File:La Vierge aux cerises.jpg|Quentin Matsys Madonna of the Cherries, 1520 File:Lucas Cranach (I) - Faunenfamilie mit erschlagenem Löwen (Getty Center).jpg|Lucas Cranach the Elder A Faun and His Family with a Slain Lion, 1522 File:Dosso Dossi (Giovanni di Niccolò de Lutero) (Italian (Ferrarese) - Mythological Scene - Google Art Project.jpg|Dosso Dossi Mythological Scene, 1524 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:Sebastiano del Piombo (Italian) - Pope Clement VII - Google Art Project.jpg|Sebastiano del Piombo Pope Clement VII, 1531 File:Hans Holbein the Younger (German - An Allegory of Passion - Google Art Project.jpg|Hans Holbein the Younger An Allegory of Passion, 1532 File:Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian - Portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos, Marquis of Vasto, in Armor with a Page - Google Art Project.jpg|Titian, 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, Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist, 1540-1545 File:Portrait of a Bearded Man by Jacopo Bassano, Getty Center.JPG|Jacopo Bassano Portrait of a Bearded Man, 1550 File:Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) and workshop - The Baptism of Christ - 79.PA.19 - J. Paul Getty Museum.jpg|Paolo Veronese The Baptism of Christ, 1588 File:Christ on the Cross by El Greco, Getty Center.JPG|El Greco Christ on the Cross, 1610 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:Anthony van Dyck - Portrait of Agostino Pallavicini - Google Art Project.jpg|Anthony van Dyck Portrait of Agostino Pallavicini, 1621 File:Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch - Musical Group on a Balcony - Google Art ProjectFXD.jpg|Gerard van Honthorst Musical Group on a Balcony, 1622 File:Rembrandt laughing.jpg|Rembrandt, Rembrandt Laughing, 1628 File:Nicolas Poussin (French - Landscape with a Calm - Google Art Project.jpg|Nicolas Poussin, Landscape in Calm Weather, 1651 File:Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish - The Vision of Saint Francis of Paola - Google Art Project.jpg|Bartolomé Esteban Murillo The Vision of Saint Francis of Paola, 1670 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:Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French - The Fountain of Love - Google Art Project.jpg|Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Fountain of Love, 1785 File:Jacques-Louis David - The Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte - Google Art Project.jpg|Jacques-Louis David, 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:Moroccan Horseman Crossing a Ford by Eugène Delacroix, c. 1850.JPG|Eugène Delacroix Moroccan Horseman Crossing a Ford, 1850 File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French - La Promenade - Google Art Project.jpg|Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Promenade, 1870 File:Maisons à Bougival, automne, par Camille Pissarro, Getty Museum, edited.jpg|Camille Pissarro Landscape at Louveciennes (Autumn), 1870 File:Edgar Degas - The Milliners - Google Art Project.jpg|Edgar Degas The Convalescent, 1872 File:Edouard Manet - Le Printemps - RW372.jpg|Édouard Manet, Spring, 1881 File:Vincent van Gogh - Irises (1889).jpg|Vincent van Gogh, Irises, 1889 File:Paul Gauguin (French - Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) - Google Art Project.jpg|Paul Gauguin, Arii Matamoe (The Royal End), 1892 File:'Starry Night' by Edvard Munch, 1893, Getty Center.JPG|Edvard Munch Starry Night, 1893 File:Claude Monet - The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light (1894) - Getty Center 2001.33.jpg|Claude Monet The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light, 1894 File:Paul Cézanne (French - Young Italian Woman at a Table - Google Art Project.jpg|Paul Cézanne, 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, 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, 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, . File:A cabinet-on-stand attributed to André-Charles Boulle at the Getty Museum.jpg|André-Charles Boulle, .

References

References

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