Los Angeles, United States — After ripping through thousands of buildings, wildfires in Los Angeles were looming Saturday toward the celebrated Getty Center and its priceless collection.
Nestled in the mountains above Los Angeles, the famed art museum is within a new evacuation warning zone as the Palisades Fire roars east toward populated areas.
Dubbed a "beautiful fortress" and constructed of fire-resistant travertine stone, as well as cement and steel, the center has drawn museum experts from around the world to observe its safety system.
Its roofs are covered with crushed stone to prevent embers igniting, and even in the gardens, resilient plants were chosen.
Inside, the galleries can be closed off with a vault-like double door that, museum officials say, is practically impenetrable.
"Getty staff, the art collections and buildings remain safe from the Palisades Fire," the museum said Friday, hours before the evacuation warning.
"The threat is still happening," Getty added in an X post.
The museum's unique collection comprises 125,000 artworks -- including paintings by Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh and Monet -- and 1.4 million documents. It also houses a research hub and a foundation.
Museum officials have previously said the collection is protected within the center's fireproof structure, made up of 300,000 travertine blocks and 12,500 tons of steel bars.
"The Getty was constructed to house valuable art and keep it very safe from fires, from earthquakes, from any type of damage," said Lisa Lapin, communications vice president now and when Getty was threatened by fire in 2019.
"We are really built like a beautiful fortress, and everything inside is quite safe," she told AFP at the time.
