Mosaics - A visit to the Getty Villa

Last weekend, Steve and I went to the Getty Villa for the first time since its reopening early this year. Steve needed to go to research something for an art history paper - I got to tag along for the fun of it (what a role reversal!). For a virtual tour, check out www.getty.edu

The remodel of the Villa is lovely - all of the art has plenty of space to breathe, and is beautifully lit, although there were figurative sculptures along the walls in some places that I would like to have been able to walk around. The Villa houses the Getty's antiquities collection - essentially Greek and Roman goodies from BC times to the fall of the Roman Empire in the form of statues of Greek gods and scads of exceptional Greek pottery.

The thing that stood out for me most, however, were the mosaics - not only those that were artifacts, but those created as part of the decor - many of them built in mesmerizing circular motifs (the first picture is the floor of the Lansdowne Herakles' room). Just about all of the floors had some kind of interesting inlay going on - and in what I thought was a very clever expression of the museum's theme and mission, brass room numbers were also inlaid at the doorways in Roman numerals.

As you may have read in the papers over the last year, the Italian goverment is asking for some of the Getty's antiquities to be returned to them. There is much discussion as to whether the pieces were smuggled or stolen before they arrived in California. I can understand that a country would hate to lose its patrimony, but wouldn't the world's museums be boring if they only held local artwork? How would we learn about other cultures? Doesn't the fascincation with things foreign promote tourism? Isn't tourism the life blood of many a large city?

And lastly, isn't the Vatican home to the largest trove of stolen art?