AIA-Orange County Chapter
Field Trip to the Getty Villa Museum
| Seventeen society members
visited the newly renovated Getty Villa Museum on September 16,
2006. Our group ate lunch together at the new Getty Cafe and
then went our separate ways to enjoy the galleries of Classical Greek
and Roman art collected by billionaire J. Paul Getty during
the early 1900's. Two of the priceless marble statues have been in the
news recently: (1) The infamous white marble statue of a man from the
island of Kouros has been declared a "fake" by some art
experts, but is still on display, and (2) the magnificent "Winged
Griffins Attacking a Deer" has been labeled as being "stolen" from a
site in Italy and negotiations are being held to return it to its
country of origin. The beautiful Roman style villa and exquisite gardens facing the Pacific Ocean (below) conveys one to a different time and place and you feel you are part of ancient Roman and Greek history. Many of our group took docent guided tours, which greatly enhanced the enjoyment and appreciation of the antiquities and the Getty Villa itself.  |