Fires in Los Angeles: artists and collectors take inventory of charred works of Art

Published on January 13, 2025 at 7:03 p.m. / Modified on January 13, 2025 at 7:06 p.m.

5 mins. reading

In Los Angeles, where the most destructive fires in its history continue unabated, residents mourn their dead, buildings wiped off the map and lush vegetation reduced to ashes. The megacity also records a number of works of Art that have gone up in smoke. “This is probably one of the biggest artistic losses America has ever seen,” insurer Simon de Burgh Codrington, director of Risk Strategies, told the site. ARTnews. “Annihilated!” testifies on Instagram Paul Schimmel, the former chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, who briefly directed the Californian branch of the Hauser & Wirth Gallery: “Our home in Altadena for thirty-five years is in ashes. She was loved, filled with wonderful memories and fabulous art.” Contacted by The Worldthe conservative remains speechless. “It’s too raw, personal and evolving for me,” he confides.

Long eclipsed by New York, Los Angeles has established itself as the home of an alternative scene, with its inspired and respected artists, like Ed Ruscha, sometimes turbulent like Mike Kelley or Richard Jackson, its powerful galleries such as as that of Larry Gagosian, who laid the foundations of his empire, his wealthy collectors, as well as sumptuous museums. In the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, located between Malibu and Santa Monica, where many Hollywood celebrities resided, collectors obviously did not escape the flames.

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