Getty Villa, Malibu, Dec 24th

Oh my gosh, what a place - modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a Roman country house in Herculaneum buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. J. Paul Getty purchased the sixty-four acre site in Malibu in 1945. In 1954, he opened the original J. Paul Getty Museum to exhibit his collection, of which Greek and Roman antiquities were an important element. In 1968, Mr. Getty decided to recreate a first century Roman country house on the property. The Getty Villa opened to the public in 1974 and closed for renovation in 1997, six months before the opening of the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Three years ago, Matt, Jimmy and I visited the Getty Center, and were just as awed by it as we are by this beautiful villa and its fabulous contents. As you can see by the photos, Nykvist's can clown around in the best of surroundings!