J. Paul Getty Museum

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.{{cite web|title=The Getty Villa to Open January 28, 2006|url=http://www.getty.edu/news/press/center/villa_ticketing_release.html|work=Press Release|publisher=J. Paul Getty Trust|access-date=June 16, 2012|archive-date=April 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419233214/http://www.getty.edu/news/press/center/villa_ticketing_release.html|url-status=dead}} In 1982, the museum became the richest in the world when it inherited US$1.2 billion.{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0DD133DF937A35750C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | title=Getty, The Art World's Big Spender | first=Douglas C. | last=McGill | date=March 4, 1987 | access-date=May 5, 2010}} 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.Eric Pace (July 23, 1996), [https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/23/arts/peter-ludwig-71-german-art-collector-dies.html Peter Ludwig, 71, German Art Collector, Dies] New York Times.

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."Eric Pace (July 23, 1996), [https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/23/arts/peter-ludwig-71-german-art-collector-dies.html Peter Ludwig, 71, German Art Collector, Dies] New York Times. 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.{{Cite web|last=Barnes|first=Sara|date=May 24, 2020|title=People Recreate Works of Art With Objects Found at Home During Self-Quarantine|url=https://mymodernmet.com/recreate-art-history-challenge/|access-date=August 8, 2020|website=My Modern Met}}{{Cite web|last1=Waldorf|first1=Sarah|last2=Stephan|first2=Annelisa|date=March 30, 2020|title=Getty Artworks Recreated with Household Items by Creative Geniuses the World Over|url=https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/getty-artworks-recreated-with-household-items-by-creative-geniuses-the-world-over/|access-date=August 8, 2020|website=J. Paul Getty Museum}} 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{{Cite news|last=Crace|first=John|date=6 April 2020|title=Coronavirus art challenge: how a pan turned me into the Duke of Urbino|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/06/how-i-became-the-duke-of-urbino-getty-museum-recreate-masterpiece|url-status=live|access-date=14 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413182110/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/06/how-i-became-the-duke-of-urbino-getty-museum-recreate-masterpiece|archive-date=13 April 2020|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite magazine|title=Put These Artistic Masterpieces Re-created With Household Items in a Museum|url=https://time.com/5812437/getty-museum-challenge/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402083618/https://time.com/5812437/getty-museum-challenge/|archive-date=2 April 2020|access-date=14 April 2020|magazine=Time|language=en}} and for incorporating its works into the popular video game Animal Crossing.{{Cite web|date=1 April 2020|title=Your 'Animal Crossing' obsession is about to get worse. Blame the Getty Art Generator|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-17/animal-crossing-new-horizons-getty-art-generator|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421075401/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-17/animal-crossing-new-horizons-getty-art-generator|archive-date=21 April 2020|access-date=19 April 2020|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}} 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.{{cite web | last=Boucher | first=Brian | title=Getty Trust to Sell $500 Million in Bonds to Beef Up Fire Protections | website=Artnet News | date=April 2, 2025 | url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/getty-trust-sell-500-million-bonds-fire-protections-2627267 | access-date=April 3, 2025}}{{cite web | last=Hudson | first=Erin | title=Getty Museum to Sell $500 Million of Debt for Fire Protection | website=Bloomberg.com | date=April 1, 2025 | url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-01/getty-museum-to-sell-500-million-of-debt-for-fire-protection | access-date=April 3, 2025}}

File:J. Paul Getty Museum 2015.jpg

File:J. Paul Getty Museum courtyard.jpg chose beige-colored Italian travertine panels to cover the retaining walls and to serve as paving stones for the arrival plaza and museum courtyard.{{cite web|url=http://www.getty.edu/visit/center/architecture.html|title=The Getty Center - Architecture|website=The Getty|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|access-date=May 21, 2015}}]]

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-13-me-frel13-story.html|title=Jiri Frel, 82; Colorful Curator Who Left Getty Under a Cloud|last=Frammolino|first=Ralph|date=13 May 2006|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=24 April 2016}}

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.Men's Vogue, Nov/Dec 2006, Vol. 2, No. 3, pg. 46.

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".Men's Vogue, Nov/Dec 2006, Vol. 2, No. 3, pg. 46. 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.Felch, Jason and Ralph Frammolino (2011), Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pp. 265–66, 312.

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.{{cite news | title = Getty lets her take fall, ex-curator says | url = http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-true29dec29,0,3427365.story?coll=la-home-headlines | work=Los Angeles Times | first1=Jason | last1=Felch | first2=Ralph | last2=Frammolino | date=December 29, 2006 | access-date=May 5, 2010}} 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.{{cite news | title = $1.5 mn Macedonian Gold Wreath Attracts Greek Populace | publisher = elitechoice.org | date = March 30, 2007 | url = http://www.elitechoice.org/2007/11/23/15-mn-macedonian-gold-wreath-attracts-greek-populace/}} A 2,400-year-old, black limestone stele and a marble votive relief dating from about 490 BC were also returned.

File:The Succulent Garden at the Getty Museum b.jpg garden at the Getty Center]]

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.{{cite news | last = Ariel | first = David | title = Getty to Return Antiquities to Italy | work = Forbes | date = August 1, 2007}} 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."{{cite news | last = Povoledo | first = Elisabetta | title = In a Tug of War, Ancient Statue Is Symbol of Patrimony | work = The New York Times | date = July 4, 2007 | url = http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/arts/design/04dig.html}} 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,"{{cite news | title = Getty will return Aphrodite statue if it has origins in Italy | work = North County Times | date = November 22, 2006 | url = http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/22/entertainment/art/12_04_5011_22_06.txt|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115021131/http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/art-and-theater/visual/article_cf6ff5ea-b8e7-581f-92d7-d5c779a3866c.html|archive-date=Jan 15, 2010}} 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.{{cite journal | last = Slayman | first = Andrew | title = Getty Returns Italian Artifacts | journal = Archaeology | volume = 52 | issue = 3 | date = May–June 1999 | url = http://www.archaeology.org/9905/newsbriefs/getty.html}}

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.{{cite news|title=Getty Museum to return Hades terracotta head to Sicily|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-getty-museum-hades-sculpture-sicily-20130110-story.html|access-date=21 December 2016}}{{cite web|title=Los Angeles - Head of Hades returned to Italy|url=http://www.esteri.it/mae/en/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/approfondimenti/2016/01/los-angeles-restituisce-all-italia.html|website=Farnesina|access-date=21 December 2016}} 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.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

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, 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: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 Laughing, 1628

File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch - An Old Man in Military Costume - Google Art Project.jpg|Rembrandt, An Old Man in Military Costume, 1630

File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_-_The_Abduction_of_Europa_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|Rembrandt, 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, 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, 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, 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|Édouard Manet, {{Interlanguage link multi|The Rue Mosnier with Flags|fr|3=La Rue Mosnier aux drapeaux}}, 1878

File:Edouard Manet - Le Printemps - RW372.jpg|Édouard Manet, 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, 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, Still Life with Apples, 1893

File:Paul Cézanne (French - Young Italian Woman at a Table - Google Art Project.jpg|Paul Cézanne, Young Italian Woman at a Table, 1895

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, {{circa|1670}}.

File:A cabinet-on-stand attributed to André-Charles Boulle at the Getty Museum.jpg|André-Charles Boulle, {{circa|1675}}.

• Getty Conservation Institute
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