A marble sculpture (left) from at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu in New Zealand lies damaged from a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in 2011. On view at the Getty Villa, a first-century Roman sculpture of a man wearing a toga (right) is mounted to a base equipped with a seismic isolator that will stabilize the fragile work of art during an earthquake.
When the Inevitable Happens...Again: Protecting Museum Collections from Earthquake Damage
GETTY VILLA
Auditorium
When floors jolt, walls crack, and buildings sway, what happens to priceless works of art? While California leads the world in efforts to lessen earthquake damage to its critical infrastructure, its spectacular museums and collections are also at risk. Former head of antiquities conservation Jerry Podany discusses how the Getty Museum has prepared for inevitable, yet unpredictable, earthquakes and championed the efforts of seismic damage mitigation for museum collections worldwide.
