And in room 108 stands a 1,900-year-old statue of Hercules, a real alpha-male figure that reputedly inspired Getty to build the museum in the design of a Roman villa.

Her staff members inside the villa were trapped but safe: When the villa was opened in 1974, it had fire-resistant concrete walls and tile roofs. There is also an elaborate sprinkler system on site.

Richard Naranjo knows the elaborate Mediterranean flora of J. Paul Getty's villa better than anyone. He planted it, spent his life tending it -- and is sprucing it up for a second act.

What’s now called the Getty Villa served as the decades-long home for the J. Paul Getty Trust’s extensive art collection. But in 1997, the Getty Center opened.

As wildfires ravaged greater Los Angeles last week, the J. Paul Getty Museum faced encroaching flames on two fronts. Blazes nearly surrounded the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, coming within ...

From a conference room at the Villa, Borsay and others watched security camera feeds of the flames as they approached the perimeter of the 64-acre property. They kept a close eye on the northeast ...