Antiquities

"The Antiquities collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum was initially formed by Mr. Getty. And he particularly liked Roman sculpture. Some of those pieces are among the finest works that we have in the collection today."
-- Karol Wight, Curator of Antiquities.

J. Paul Getty began buying classical art in earnest in the early 1950s and opened his small house-museum to the public in 1954. Fourteen years later, he built a much larger museum in Malibu modeled after a still-unexcavated ancient Roman villa, the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. The Department of Antiquities was formed in 1973.