J. Paul Getty Museum. Dept. of Decorative Arts

The Department of Decorative Arts of the J. Paul Getty Museum grew out of J. Paul Getty's collecting activities. When Getty opened his ranch house to the public as a museum in 1954, there were about 30 pieces of French furniture in the collection; dominant were the works of 18th century French cabinetmakers. It was considered to be one of the best collections of its kind in the country. With the opening of the museum, Getty ceased his collecting activities; he considered the collection complete. However, when he decided to build the new Museum (the Villa), he began expanding the collection and hired Gillian Wilson (b. 1941) as its first curator. Since Getty's death, the collecting emphasis of the department has been European furniture, procelain, tapestries, clocks, candelabra, and other objects of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Gillian Wilson became the J. Paul Getty Museum's first Curator of Decorative Arts in December 1971, following training at the Victoria & Albert Museum and a year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her field of expertise was French furniture, which dovetailed with Getty's interest in that specific area. Almost all material purchased by the museum in the 1970s is French, circa late 17th-mid 18th century. Wilson retired in 2002. In July 2004, Antonia Boström was appointed curator of a newly combined Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts.

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