The Getty will reopen the Getty Villa on June 27 with a large exhibit on art and artifacts from the Late Bronze Age in Greece, per an announcement from the institution.
The Villa closed on January 7 due to the threat of the Palisades Fire, which burned the grounds, destroyed 23,448 acres as well as consumed the homes of many artists and art professionals.
On January 7, 17 members of the Getty’s facilities, grounds, and security staff volunteered to stay on site to protect the museum. They sealed the villa’s galleries and put out small fires. The Getty said targeted water drops and firefighting efforts from Los Angeles Fire Department Staff in surrounding neighborhoods helped spare the institution.
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During the months of the Getty Villa’s closure, the institution’s facilities and grounds teams “coordinated an extensive cleanup” which included deep cleaning of indoor and outdoor spaces as well as the removal of more than 1,300 fire-damaged trees from the property.
“It is with the utmost gratitude and appreciation for Getty staff, first responders, and other agencies that we can announce the reopening of the Villa to the public,” J. Paul Getty Trust President and CEO Katherine Fleming said in a statement. “Without their tireless efforts, we would not be in the position we are in today, where we can welcome back visitors and the surrounding community to enjoy the Villa grounds and collection.”
The Getty Villa will reopen with the new exhibition “The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece”, a showcase of over 230 works of art and artifacts from Messenia, “an epicenter of the Mycenaean civilization that flourished in Late Bronze Age Greece.”
The exhibition will include clay tablets written in the earliest form of the written Greek language and the Pylos Combat Agate, a prehistoric Minoan sealstone dating to 1450 BCE with “exceptional and elaborate engraving” of two warriors engaged in combat.
“We are incredibly grateful for the support received from the Museum community and beyond as we work towards reopening the Getty Villa Museum,” Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum, said in a press statement. “We look forward to welcoming visitors back to explore our newest exhibition, The Kingdom of Pylos, and much more of our treasured antiquities collection this summer.”
In addition to the Getty’s outdoor classical theater programming returning in the fall, the Villa’s will offer public talks and events focused on this upcoming exhibition.