A lift for LA as iconic Getty Villa Museum reopens, scarred but intact after fires
The Getty Villa Museum reopened June 27, 2025, nearly six months after it was damaged in the Los Angeles wildfires, in Pacific Palisades. The hills behind the museum are charred from the January fires that destroyed much of the surrounding area.
Ali Martin/海角大神
Los Angeles
In the Getty Villa鈥檚 gardens Friday morning, a light breeze and the splash of fountains punctuate a peaceful quiet; there is no hint of the construction below on Pacific Coast Highway. Nearly six months after the Palisades wildfire scorched 23,000 surrounding acres, decimated thousands of nearby homes, and damaged much of the museum grounds, the Los Angeles landmark is open again.
It is a moment of joy for staff and visitors, tempered by the continuing recovery outside the museum walls. Alexandria Sivak, an assistant communications director for the Getty, expresses 鈥渁 solemn understanding that we are surrounded by many homes that did not make it through the fire ... while at the same time feeling very grateful that we remain standing.鈥�
Visitors to the museum鈥檚 reopening echo that gratitude.
Why We Wrote This
The Getty Villa Museum, a cultural touchstone in LA, escaped major damage from wildfires. Its reopening gives recovering Angelenos, and others, something to smile about.
鈥淭o come here and experience this shows that there鈥檚 life and there鈥檚 beauty and there鈥檚 still art to experience here,鈥� says Phil Sky, who worked on the villa as a carpenter about 20 years ago.
Oil magnate J. Paul Getty built the Roman-style villa more than 50 years ago as a monument to classical art and architecture. It houses tens of thousands of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. The gardens offer beauty and tranquility overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Olive trees, fennel, and purple artichoke thistles grow in an herb garden filled with Mediterranean plants. Around the corner, the outer garden鈥檚 sitting areas encircle a sparkling reflecting pool outlined with perfectly trimmed hedges, and walled in by frescoed landscapes of the Italian countryside.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel like this is LA,鈥� says Mr. Sky. 鈥淚鈥檓 walking through Europe or some other country as I go through here.鈥�
During the Palisades fire, artwork was safe inside the buildings, which were designed to withstand heat and flames. But 鈥渢here was stress and nervousness in the operation center as we were watching fires spark up surrounding the campus,鈥� says Ms. Sivak. The fire consumed more than 1,400 trees on the property and left soot and ash blanketing the site.
This is Robyn Kranzler鈥檚 first visit to the museum, even though she grew up in nearby North Hollywood. 鈥淚鈥檓 blown away. I didn鈥檛 know it was so beautiful here,鈥� she says.
The professional runner lives in Wisconsin now, and hasn鈥檛 been back in nearly four years. The extent of the area's fire damage is shocking, she says, and the villa provides an important break from the political and social upheaval going on in the world. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to get caught up in all the here and now. ... And having something like this just kind of reminds you that there is a lot more.鈥�
Lee Holtz lives in New York, but spends a lot of time in Los Angeles. He was here during the January wildfires. In a 鈥渓andscape of impermanence,鈥� the museum is remarkable for enduring, he says. 鈥淭his is the survivor of an earlier and in some ways grander civilization. So that鈥檚 symbolic in all kinds of ways.鈥�
The thought that it might not survive the next disaster got Heather Fuller to drive up from Orange County, south of Los Angeles. She had planned to visit in January, but the fires kept her away.
She鈥檚 happy the villa is open, she says, and hopes 鈥渋t symbolizes that everyone else who is affected will be able to get back to their lives as well.鈥�