Los Angeles fires could test Getty’s claim of being safest place to store artwork
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Getty team says no current plans to move prominent pieces from center deemed ‘marvel of anti-fire engineering’. It houses some of the richest treasures of the art world, such as Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, a popular Rembrandt and a priceless collection of paintings, portraits and other works spanning more than seven centuries.
![[flames burst behind sign that says 'Getty Villa']](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3389511256c2355476b4b80d1c17b049c9dd0d34/0_0_8192_5464/master/8192.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
To protect them, the Getty Center in Los Angeles was built in 1997 as “a marvel of anti-fire engineering”, complete with fire-resistant stone and concrete, protected steel, and set in well-irrigated landscaping. Now, with an evacuation order in place for the Brentwood area of the city in which the museum is housed, and as flames from the deadly Palisades wildfire rage nearby, the Getty’s claim of being the safest place for art during a fire could soon be put to the test.
Outwardly, at least, there is little concern. “Our galleries are safe and protected,” Katherine Fleming, president and chief executive of the J Paul Getty Trust asserted in a statement on Saturday. But after a close call last week at the Getty Center’s sister facility, the Getty Villa museum in Malibu about 10 miles away, staff who have remained on site admit they are “monitoring the situation closely”.
There are, Fleming said, no plans to evacuate artwork or the remaining personnel because Getty officials consider them “already in the safest place possible”. A 2019 article published on the museum’s website details the extensive planning that went into the construction of the museum complex high in the hills above Brentwood, with “materials, design, construction, operations, and controls purpose-built for safety” inside and out.
