Fires in California | A loss of historical works of Art

The Californian fires swept away artists’ studios and Art collections, leading to “one of the largest losses of works of art” in the history of the United States, according to American media.

Works of art are part of the DNA of the City of Angels. In the hellish chaos of the fires that have raged there since January 7, several artists, collectors and art lovers have deplored the loss of the work of a life.

At the same time, several museums have closed their doors. So far, the blazes have caused 24 deaths and 180,000 people have been displaced. And the toll is likely to rise further.

Read “Bodies Every Day”

Added to this human drama is the loss, for several artists, of their works stored in their house, now reduced to ashes. Their despair is shared on social networks and in the American media.

“It’s hard to lose your whole life in one night,” lamented Diana Thater in an interview with New York Times. This artist is known for her works inspired by nature. The destruction of his Altadena home, which contained years of archives and paintings, will prevent him from exhibiting when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art reopens, as planned.

She is not the only one to have suffered such a loss. The painter Alec Egan and the artist Camilla Taylor also spoke to the New York daily after the destruction of their home. A fundraiser was also launched to support the affected artists.

Museums spared, until now

Museums have so far resisted the flames, but several have closed their doors. This is particularly the case at the famous Getty Museum, where paintings by Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Monet are exhibited, among a collection of 125,000 pieces and 1.4 million documents. Everything was left behind when staff were ordered to evacuate, Agence France-Presse reported.

The museum was, however, designed to resist fires, explained the president and CEO of the Getty Foundation, Katherine Fleming, on - on Monday.

Listen to Katherine Fleming’s interview on -

The damage linked to the art world has not yet been measured, but could be historic, specialists already estimate.

“This is one of the losses [d’œuvres d’art] most significant and possibly the largest ever to occur in the United States,” fine arts insurance expert Simon de Burgh Codrington told ArtNews.

With Agence France-Presse and the New York Times