The Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts oversees a rich collection of nearly 1,700 objects, spanning from the late-12th to mid-20th centuries. Among the world’s finest collections of European decorative arts, which J. Paul Getty began acquiring in the 1930s, it features premier examples of furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, textiles, clocks, and gilt bronzes that date from the Renaissance to the early 1800s, as well as medieval and Renaissance stained glass. Established in 1984, the sculpture collection includes European masterpieces made from the Middle Ages through the early 1900s as well as 28 works by prominent European and American artists of the 20th-century, donated by Fran and Ray Stark in 2004.
The collection is displayed alongside complementary paintings in the Museum’s galleries. Most of the modern sculpture is exhibited outdoors on the grounds of the Getty Center.
