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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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