Culture Vulture

Any one who knows me well will know that I’m a bit of a culture vulture.  I do like my old stuff.  I’m not saying I’m addicted to Time Team or the Antiques Roadshow, cos I’m not, but I do like a bit of art, a bit of history and an authentic old building or two.   I’m one of those people who will always read the guide book; I like to discover a bit of the heritage and history of wherever I happen to be – despite those exasperated sighs from the rest of the family whenever we’ve been on holiday somewhere – yes you really do have a give up half a day on the beach to go and walk around some old ruins….

So, to be honest, I didn't think LA was going to be the ideal place for me to be.  But on the contrary, I’ve been amazed by the amount of culture I’ve found out here.

There’s "new" money in California and lots of it.  What do those 20^th  century American entrepreneurs and industrialists like to do? They collect stuff.  They spend their cash sending their minions around  the world buying up everyone else's antiquities, Old Masters and National Treasures.   There’s stacks of it out here.

We’ve visited the two Getty museums – the Getty Centre and the Getty Villa.  Mr Getty acquired so much art he had two museums specially commissioned to display it all in.  At the modern high tech Getty Centre in LA you can view the Rembrandts and the Van Goghs; at his pseudo Italian villa in Malibu you can see statues from Pompeii and ancient Greece.  Zillions of dollars worth of it. And how did Mr Getty make his money?  Oil.  His formula for success? Rise Early; Work Hard; Strike Oil.  Well my husband has been rising early and working hard for an oil company for the last 20 years.  How come he hasn’t bought me a statue of Aphrodite yet? 

Then, here in Pasadena, there’s Henry Huntington.  He made his fortune out of the railroad and this man collected anything and everything.  He started with books – hundreds of them –  then moved onto art, furniture, ceramics, silverware, plants.  He's got Wedgewood; Constables, Gainsboroughs; he has medieval manuscripts, a  Gutenburg bible, and a collection of light bulbs.  Yes light bulbs. Why? Presumably just because he could.

And then, just last week, we discovered the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.  Mr Simon was another 20^th century industrialist who made a whole lot of money and spent it on collectables.  He has paintings by Picasso; Raphael, a garden full of sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore (haven't we all?), and the largest collection of Indian statues outside of India. Why?   How much “stuff” does one person need?

Couldn’t these people think of anything more worthwhile to spend their money on?

I’ve never seen so much culture in all my life.  In fact, I’ve seen too much.  Must be time to visit Hollywood Boulevard again to buy up a bit of old tourist tat.