In December 1997 the J. Paul Getty Museum will open its new home in the spectacular Getty Center, designed by the renowned architect Richard Meier, and dramatically sited in the Santa Monica Mountains above Los Angeles. This will constitute the third home for the Getty Museum collections, which were first displayed in J. Paul Getty's ranch house in Malibu and later were housed in the splendid reconstruction of an ancient Roman villa that Getty had built on the grounds of his Malibu estate. This book contains a lively text by the Director and Associate Director of the Museum along with archival and recently commissioned photographs to provide a biography of the Museum's benefactor. In addition, the book presents a history of the buildings that have housed his collections and of the collections themselves--first formed by Getty in his lifetime and greatly expanded following his generous and much-heralded bequest.