Getty Center Closes After Fire Breaks Out Along Los Angeles’s 405 Freeway

Los Angeles’s Getty Center closed early on Wednesday after a fire broke out along the 405 Freeway.

Per the Los Angeles Times, the fire was reported to the city’s Fire Department at 4:30 p.m.; it has already burned five acres. The Fire Department has issued an evacuation warning for an area that includes the Getty Center, a complex that includes museum buildings host to Renaissance and Old Master paintings, the Getty Research Institute, and a Robert Irwin–designed garden.

According to CBS News, the Getty Center asked visitors to exit through the parking garage and closed the museum at 4:45 p.m. “The Getty Center is closed due to a nearby fire,” reads a notice on the museum’s website.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any damage to the Getty Center. ARTnews has reached out to the Getty for comment.

Of the zone impacted by the blaze, which is already being called the Getty Fire, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, “Anyone in the area should prepare to evacuate should conditions worsen. Please stay vigilant and follow all instructions from first responders.”

This is not the first time in recent history that a fire has broken out near the Getty Center. In 2019, a wildfire near the 405 consumed 745 acres.

The Getty Center was designed by Richard Meier with fires in mind. Features such as crushed rocks on the roof, a travertine skin, and plants on the campus have helped spare the museum complex from significant damage in the past. “The safest place for the artwork to be is right here in the Getty Center,” he told the New York Times in 2017, the year another fire came near the complex.



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