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Controversial Getty Villa To Re-Open After 12-Year Hiatus

Posted by: David Gest

27 January 2006 - 8:00am

The palatial urban masterpiece is finally back, but its art collection has been called into question by international critics.

"The Getty Villa is reopening this week after a 12-year, $275m renovation. Its new raison d'etre: to house and display the museum's extensive, and lately disputed, classical antiquities collection."

"Star doctors to the famous Malibu resident are not Beverly Hills plastic surgeons, but Boston-based architects Jorge Silvetti and Rodolfo Machado. Their task? To renovate and expand the original site of the museum built by the oil speculator, businessman and art collector J Paul Getty in the 1970s."

"...the $7.5bn (£4.2bn) Getty Trust, the world's richest art institution, [finds] itself at the centre of an international scandal after officials in Italy and Greece identified as many as 50 allegedly looted artworks in the Getty Museum's collection."

Full Story: Under the California sun
Source: The Guardian Unlimited, January 24, 2006
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The areas where we have severe blight and indications of more blight to come are basically the same as they ever were. How in the world are we ever going to move our community development selves into an alternative future that thinks differently about the challenges we face in our cities and low-income suburban and rural communities?
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