As several fires continue to tear through Los Angeles, two museums have burned to the ground. Many other institutions in the city remained closed as of Wednesday night, citing a desire to ensure the safety of their respective staffs.
Multiple fires continued to burn on Thursday morning, with two of them now considered the most destructive disasters ever recorded in Los Angeles’s history. The damage has been far-reaching: officials have said that five people have died in the fires, which have thus far burned 27,000 acres.
The fires in the Pacific Palisades and the Eaton neighborhoods were the two largest, and a new one sprung up in Hollywood Hills on Wednesday night.
As the fires rage on, artists have lost their homes, and museums and galleries have delayed shows.
At least two museums have burned as well. On Wednesday night, CBS News reported that the Bunny Museum, an Altadena institution known for its 50,000-piece collection of rabbit-related ephemera, had been totally destroyed. Steve Lubanski, the museum’s co-owner, estimated that 40 years’ worth of work had been lost.
“Saved only a few bunny items. Saved the cats and bunnies,” the Bunny Museum wrote on Facebook. “The museum was the last building to burn around us as Steve so valiantly hosed the building down all night long, but when the building next door went down, it spread to the museum.”
Established in 1998, the museum has gained a cult reputation, appearing in the Guinness Book of World Records multiple times. Last March, SFGate touted the Bunny Museum as “one of the weirdest, wildest places in California.”
A ranch that hosted a Beverly Hills museum dedicated to the actor Will Rogers was also lost to the flames. Rogers’s great-granddaughter, Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, said in a statement to the Museums Association, “The Rogers family is devastated by the loss of the California ranch and the overwhelming loss of the community. Our hearts go out to all those [neighbors] who have lost their homes.”
Brighter news could be found at some of the city’s biggest art institutions. The Pacific Palisades fire reached the Getty Villa on Tuesday night, but the museum itself was spared, with the flames burning only trees and vegetation on the institution’s campus. Irrigation and the museum’s double-walled construction ensured that the Getty Villa was safe, the museum said.
The Getty Villa, along with its sister museum, the Getty Center, are still closed today, along with museums ranging from the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
