A story on Paul Getty Museum

Established in 1954, and located at 1200 Getty Centre Drive, Los Angeles (LA), California, USA, Getty Museum is well-known throughout the world. Art lovers know about it better.
I personally came to know of the name of J Paul Getty way back in Mid 70's of the last century during my days in London. Getty being a cosmopolitan citizen was then living in his Estate's Palatial House, Seven Oak, Surrey, England; a couple of miles away from Wimbledon village where I was living. He was known as an oil tycoon and one of the richest men in the world. Then the media flashed shocking news that his nephew was kidnapped by a group of Mafia Dons in Italy. The kidnappers demanded a big sum of ransom from Getty who stubbornly refused to succumb to all threat that his young nephew would suffer the worst consequences. Soon it followed kidnappers' heinous action as much as they cut off young Getty's an ear and had it sent to Paul Getty. Undaunted, Paul Getty struck to his guns and refused payment of ransom as demanded. Eventually, his nephew was released further un-hurt by the kidnappers.
We travelled to sub-continental countries including Sri Lanka while being attached to the diplomatic Mission during 1965-1970, and to Middle East, European countries, namely The United Kingdom, having been attached to our diplomatic Mission twice (1973-1976 and 1984-1988), and to a number of continental countries. But we had constraints to visit USA.
A couple of years back, my two daughters got married to two bride-grooms. Both of them were then Ph D candidates in South Carolina University and University of California Riverside (UCR) respectively. Later they completed their Ph D. My eldest daughter is a product of Dhaka University with result par excellence both in BSS (Hon's) and MSS in International Relations and is now pursuing her studies in Accountancy leading towards CPA. My second daughter also made excellent results both in her B Sc (Hon's) and M Sc in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from BUET and herself was a Ph D candidate in UCR.
Much to our reluctance to undertake long and arduous journey, my second daughter Sonia was bent upon and relentlessly insisting for us to visit her. We could not turn a deaf ear to the invitation extended by Sonia and her husband, Farhan K Shahil, Ph D. Eventually I, accompanied by my wife Shahana, travelled to USA and arrived there on October 14, 2012 leaving behind our youngest daughter, Farhana A Ahsan, MBA (DU) and her husband, an IBA product (both are Bank Officers). We were living with Sonia for seven months. Meanwhile, she was blessed with a daughter, our cute granddaughter Farisha Saffana Shahil. Then we attended her and Farhan's Ph D convocation held on 17th June 2013 along with our granddaughter Saffana.
Farhan had taken us to visit many places. To name a few; San Diego city, its Pacific Beaches, Las Vegas, Lake Parrish, Palm Springs, Botanical Garden, twice to Los Angeles; once to Pacific Beaches, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and roamed around the city. Then on the second occasion we went to visit Getty Museum on May 23, 2013. One Getty two locations - The Getty Centre and the Getty Villa, Malibu. Both interconnected by tram ¾ of a mile in hill 881 feet above sea level. The top is picturesque with grandeur of gardens artificially created in hill side landscaping by world famous architects. The picture printed below is one of the rare gardens.
Our party consisting of our granddaughter Saffana, Sonia, Shahana, myself and Farhan who drove us 60 miles up and down Los Angeles. We arrived at Getty Centre and then went up to the Museum and The Getty Villa which contain art pieces from ancient Greece, Rome, Etruria besides western art from the Middle Ages to the present.
In the villas, there are 4 pavilions - North, East, South and West. These pavilions indicate distinctive periods of art e g North (Art before 1700 AD), East (Art of 1600 - 1800), South (Art of 1600-1800) and West (Art before 1800). Then there is a research centre to discover details of the pieces of art.
We went round the villa looking at each art piece, one different from the other, something rare and seemed creation of wonders. That was a layman's impression, while the real art lovers would have different impressions coupled with deep feelings of joy. To us it was a worth visit and certainly one day was not sufficient and satisfying to fathom rare creation of beauty in the art world by numerous great modern and the ancient artists. Owing to space constraints, it is difficult to reproduce some art and paintings. Art lovers may visit Getty Museum's website: http/www.getty.edu/museum to know things in detail.
Getty Museum inherited priceless art collections regarded as the richest in the world. Paul Getty collected the art pieces from different sources, from open auctions including medieval manuscripts from the Ludwig collection in Aachen; then West Germany. In the western world, it is a common phenomenon that valuable art pieces were being stolen by a gang of thieves and sold in the market. It is said that many stolen pieces were also a part of Paul Getty's collection. Many art dealers were nabbed in the past for selling stolen art pieces. The Getty Museum was drawn into such controversies with Greece and Italy; resulting in the return of rare art pieces dated back to several centuries BC to Greece and Italian governments.
And yet the Getty Museum as said before is the richest in the world; a creation of J Paul Getty; a legend who will remain immortal and remembered by millions of visitors and art lovers.

The writer is Ex-Commercial Secretary, Bangladesh High Commission, London, who can be reached at e-mail: [email protected]