The Burdens of Wealth

The creation of Paul Getty’s museum in Malibu in the autumn of 1953 was so abrupt and unceremonious that no one at the time could have guessed that it would one day grow into one of any importance. Its debut was both modest and deliberately inauspicious, with the result that its very existence was hardly noticed until well into its second decade. The birth could be compared to that of a child conceived out of wedlock, an offspring about whose origins the parent felt some uneasiness. But it was not the aftermath of a momentary enthusiasm or even a long and complex affair—rather a decision taken on the advice of counsel and meant to satisfy an immediate need of the father. Then, like Getty’s five children who preceded it, the museum was left to be brought up by others and so would come to lead a stunted and unstable existence for much of its early life.

Private institutions necessarily bear a resemblance to their founders, and Getty’s museum—which is now much more than a museum—is no exception. But over time it has evolved in ways that its parent would not have condoned. This evolution, still in its early stages, has been far more erratic and unpredictable than might have been imagined, and it continues to change direction in ways that make plain that it has not yet succeeded in finding its proper role.