Los Angeles fires, three museums destroyed

During the fires that broke out last January seven around the city of Los Angeles, California, and which particularly raged over the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena causing 10 deaths and 22 injuries so far, three museums have already been lost, razed to the ground by the flames: they are the Zorthian Ranch, the Bunny Museum and the Will Rogers’ Historic Ranch. The fires have currently affected an area of about 120 square kilometers, necessitated the evacuation of 180 thousand people and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage, with many homes destroyed.

The Zorthian Ranch was the museum created by Armenian-born artist Jirayr Zorthian (Kütahya, 1911 - Pasadena, 2004), who lived on a ranch on the outskirts of Pasadena for much of his life, cultivating a bohemian lifestyle and creating his artwork here, much of which was housed in the museum. Much of the ranch was lost, the institute points out, the artworks created by Jirayr Zorthian that were stored here were destroyed, the archives were lost, and some of the structures (sheds, service structures, exhibition spaces) were burned. However, the main house and an annex, the “Green House,” were saved. An initial damage count, not counting what was irretrievably lost such as artworks, amounts to $400,000, the museum calculates, of which $92,000 was just for cleaning up the debris. Anyone wishing to make a donation can go to the GoFundMe website where the museum, in addition to detailing the damage done and the work done over the years, has opened a subscription ($40,000 raised so far).

Totally destroyed was the Bunny Museum, the unique “bunny museum”: opened in 1998, it displayed a vast collection of memorabilia all dedicated to rabbits (over 46 thousand pieces). “Sad and heartbreaking to announce that the Bunny Museum has burned to the ground,” wrote the two owners, Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski, who lived in the facility along with two cats and three rabbits, on Instagram. “Open for 26 years. The only museum in the world dedicated to all things rabbit. Certified by Guinness World Record: 1999, 2011, 2023. Only a few items about rabbits have been saved. Cats and bunnies were saved. The museum was the last building to burn around us as Steve so gingerly watered it all night, but when the building next door collapsed, the tragedy spread to the museum.” Frazee and Lubanski, who are now living in a motel (and asking if someone can temporarily house them), warned about fake GoFundMe campaigns on behalf of the museum (unfortunately, there are cases of virtual looting) and let it be known that a subscription will soon be launched to help the museum be rebuilt. Those interested in following the Bunny Museum’s happenings can check out its Instagram account.

Finally, destroyed the Will Rogers’ Historic Ranch, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. It was the ranch where Will Rogers, Hollywood’s most popular and highest-paid actor of the 1930s, lived, turned into a house-museum dedicated to him, run by the California Parks Authority. The Rogers family released a statement saying they are “devastated by the loss of the California ranch and the overwhelming loss to the community. Our hearts go out to all of our neighbors who have lost their homes.”

In addition to these three sites, several other cultural treasures in Los Angeles have been threatened by the fires, which are ongoing and have spread throughout the city due to high winds. On Tuesday, Jan. 7, the fire reached the grounds of the Getty Villa Museum in Pacific Palisades, which houses an internationally important collection of Greek and Roman antiquities in a building inspired by Herculaneum’s Villa of the Papyri. The museum has since confirmed that staff and collections are safe, but the villa will remain closed indefinitely. The institution, managed by the J. Paul Getty Trust, said it has implemented significant “fire mitigation efforts” in recent years, including vegetation removal, on-site water storage, irrigation throughout the grounds, and a state-of-the-art air treatment system. The trust’s other site, the Getty Centre, which is 10 miles away from the villa, was also already threatened by forest fires in 2019.

Los Angeles fires, three museums destroyed

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