Getty Villa facts for kids
The Outer Peristyle of the Villa in 2007
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| Established | 1954, reopened 2006 |
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| Location | 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades, California |
| Type | Art museum |
| Collection size | 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities |
| Visitors | 509,000 (2021) |
| Public transit access |  Los Angeles Metro Bus: 134 |
The Getty Villa is a cool place in Pacific Palisades, California. It's an art museum and a learning center all in one! This special museum is one of two parts of the J. Paul Getty Museum. It's all about studying the amazing art and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.
Imagine seeing 44,000 ancient objects from these places! They date from 6,500 years before Christ all the way to 400 AD. Some famous pieces include the Lansdowne Heracles statue and the Victorious Youth. The Getty Villa also hosts a special program where students learn how to take care of ancient art.
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History of the Getty Villa
Back in 1954, a rich oil businessman named J. Paul Getty opened a small art gallery next to his home. He quickly ran out of space for all his treasures! So, he decided to build a much bigger museum. This new museum, the Getty Villa, was built on the same property, just down the hill.
The design of the Getty Villa was inspired by an ancient Roman house called the Villa of the Papyri. This old villa was buried by a volcano in Herculaneum, Italy. Architects Robert E. Langdon, Jr., and Ernest C. Wilson, Jr., worked with an archaeologist to make the Getty Villa look just like an ancient Roman home.
The Getty Villa first opened its doors in 1974. Sadly, J. Paul Getty never got to visit it before he passed away in 1976. After he died, the museum received a lot of money. This allowed them to plan an even bigger place, the Getty Center, nearby.
To make enough room for all their art, the museum decided to use both locations. The Getty Villa became the home for all the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art.
In 1997, the Getty Villa closed for a big makeover. Some of its ancient art moved to the Getty Center during this time. The renovation made the building even better and helped protect the artworks.
The Getty Villa reopened on January 28, 2006. Now, you can see Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art in buildings that look like ancient Roman homes. Beautiful Roman-style gardens surround the museum. The art is grouped by cool themes like Gods and Goddesses and Stories of the Trojan War. The new design around the Villa makes it feel like you're exploring an archaeological dig!
The collection was updated again between 2016 and 2018. Now, the art is shown in time order, making it easier to see how art changed over history.
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Sometimes, there have been discussions about some art pieces. The governments of Greece and Italy believed some objects in the collection were taken illegally. The Getty Museum worked with them. In 2006, the Getty returned four items to Greece. In 2007, they agreed to return 40 items to Italy.
The Getty Villa hosted a special dinner for world leaders in 2022. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed guests for the 9th Summit of the Americas. This was the first time the Villa hosted such an important event!
In January 2025, a fire started on the Villa's grounds. Luckily, no buildings or artworks were harmed. However, about 1,400 trees were burned. The Villa reopened on June 27, 2025, after everything was cleaned up.
What You Can Do at the Getty Villa
The Getty Villa is a lively place with lots to see and do! You can watch live performances in its indoor theater or its outdoor Greek theater. They've had plays like The Trojan Women and The Frogs. Sometimes, there are musical shows that connect to the art exhibits. They even had a public reading of Homer's famous story, the Iliad.
The outdoor theater has hosted ancient Greek plays like Peace and Elektra. The Getty Villa also brings in special exhibits from other places. For example, they once showed old photographs of the Middle East from the 1840s.
The Getty Villa has awesome programs just for kids! There's a special Family Forum gallery. Here, you can decorate Greek vases or make shadows on a screen that looks like a Greek urn. The room also has props from Greek and Roman times that kids can touch and use to create shadows. The Villa also has special guides to help children explore the other exhibits.
Exploring the Campus
The Getty Villa is located in Pacific Palisades, right next to Malibu. The museum sits on a big piece of land, about 64 acres, on a hill. From here, you can see the beautiful Pacific Ocean!
Near the entrance, there's an outdoor pavilion built into the hill. There's also a large parking garage. To the west of the museum, you'll find a 450-seat outdoor Greek theater. This is where evening shows take place. The theater faces the Villa and uses its entrance as a stage.
There's also a three-story building with a museum shop on the bottom floor. Above that, there's a cafe where you can grab a bite to eat. North of the Villa is a large indoor auditorium that can seat 250 people.
On the hill above the museum, you can see J. Paul Getty's original ranch house. This building, along with a museum wing he added, is now used for offices and a library. While not open to the public, J. Paul Getty's grave is also on the hill behind his ranch house.
The main museum building is shaped like a square around a courtyard called the Inner Peristyle. During the 2006 renovation, they added 58 windows and a retractable skylight. They also updated the floors and added special features to protect the statues from earthquakes. The museum has a huge 48,000 square feet of gallery space!
Beautiful Gardens
The Getty Villa has four amazing gardens. They are filled with plants that grew in the Mediterranean region and were known to ancient Romans.
The biggest garden is the Outer Peristyle. It's a perfect copy of a garden from the ancient Villa dei Papiri. This garden is 308 feet long and 105 feet wide, with a 220-foot-long pool in the middle. It has classic Roman landscaping with neat shrubs like bay laurel and oleander. Rows of date palms line the long sides of the garden. You'll also see pomegranate trees and other pretty plants like ivy and lavender. Copies of Roman bronze statues are placed throughout the garden.
Just west of the Outer Peristyle is the Herb Garden. Here, you'll find herbs mentioned in ancient Roman writings. There are also fruit trees like fig, apricot, apple, and pear. Grapevines surround the garden, and an olive grove grows on terraces above it.
The East Garden is a small, quiet spot. It's surrounded by laurel and plane trees. Its main feature is a copy of a famous shell and mosaic fountain from Pompeii. There's also a round fountain in the middle of a basin filled with water plants.
The fourth garden is the Inner Peristyle. Like the Outer Peristyle, it has a long, narrow, marble-lined pool. Along the sides are copies of bronze statues of women from the Villa dei Papiri. They look like they are getting water from the pool. In each corner, there's a white marble fountain. You can also see bronze copies of famous Greek sculptures and busts of Greek thinkers like Pythagoras.
Amazing Collection
The Getty Villa's collection has 44,000 ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan objects. These date from 6,500 BC to 400 AD. About 1,400 of these incredible items are on display for you to see.
One of the most amazing pieces is the Victorious Youth. This is one of the very few life-size Greek bronze statues that still exist today! Another famous statue is the Lansdowne Heracles, a Roman sculpture inspired by Greek art. The Villa also has beautiful jewelry and coin collections. Plus, there's a huge library with 20,000 books about art from these ancient times.
You can also see the Getty kouros statue. The museum lists it as "Greek, about 530 B.C., or modern forgery." This is because scientists aren't sure if it's truly ancient Greek or a modern copy. If it's real, it's one of only twelve complete life-size kouroi (ancient Greek statues of young men) left in the world! Another impressive piece is the Marbury Hall Zeus, an 81-inch-tall marble statue found near Rome.
Gallery
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Outer Peristyle
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Outer Peristyle – architectural detail
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Inner Peristyle
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Gallery within the Villa
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Ancient Roman glassware in the Getty Villa
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Marbury Hall Zeus, King of the Gods, at the Getty Villa
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Athena, Goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill
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Roman-Egyptian Female Mummy Portrait
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Roman gold medallion
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Roman bronze statuette
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Roman fresco fragment of a peacock
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Roman head-shaped glass vessels
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Statue of a Siren
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Victorious Youth, part of the museum's collection
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Etruscan amber pendant of a lion and a swan
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Etruscan gold ring depicting a siren, sphinx, and hippocamp
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Grave Stele of Pollis (480 BC)
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See also
In Spanish: Villa Getty para niños
- Camillo Paderni described parts the Villa of the Papyri
