J. Paul Getty viewed art as a civilizing influence in society, and strongly believed in making art available to the public for its education and enjoyment. He opened the J. Paul Getty Museum to the public in 1954. This small museum, established in his ranch house in Malibu, housed collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, 18th-century French furniture, and European paintings. Fascinated with the ancient world of the Mediterranean, he later built a Roman-style villa, modeled after the Villa dei Papiri of the first century A.D.

When most of Mr. Getty's personal estate passed to the Trust in 1982, the Trustees sought to make a greater contribution to the visual arts through an expanded museum as well as a range of new programs. Planning for the Getty Center began in the mid-1980s, when property in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the American architectural firm of Richard Meier & Partners was awarded the design commission.

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, a dramatic hilltop campus, opened in 1997. The Getty Villa in Malibu closed for renovation that same year and opened in early 2006 with a new mission. As an educational center and museum dedicated to the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria, the Getty Villa served a varied audience through exhibitions, conservation, scholarship, research, and public programs.