The shock is beginning to wear off and the costs are being counted. The largest of the L.A. fires have been vanquished by firefighters — and rain — after a month. Mom's photo is gone, the portrait of the kids is only a memory, and you don't even want to think about the Andy Warhols.
Ah, yes, the Andy Warhols. It's bad enough that the family manse is dust sitting on a lot in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, or Pasadena, but America and the world may forever be deprived of enjoying some of the finest works of art.
Private art collections worth billions of dollars went up in smoke when the fire hydrants went dry in Pacific Palisades. Entire bodies of work by musicians were lost in their home studios. Original charts by famous composers were incinerated.
Here are the losses so far reported by collectors and artists living in the fire areas. You can bet many more are unreported and perhaps will remain so. And, Hunter Biden's art-for-access works don't even move the needle. Many of the reported losses were uninsured due to the outrageous insurance system in California, made worse by the so-called insurance commissioner.
Art News reported that fine arts insurance specialist Simon de Burgh Codrington believes “This is going to be substantial and possibly one of the most impactful art losses ever in America," and is expected “to be much more impactful than [Hurricane] Sandy was to the art world.”
This assessment was made just three days after the fires started. The world is beginning to count the cost.
Art collector Ron Rivlin owned 30 Andy Warhol pieces.
Happy Birthday to iconic artist Andy Warhol, explore 1000+ of his works on Artsy: https://t.co/u4bRkbhwNm pic.twitter.com/K725jQtjdA
— Artsy (@artsy) August 6, 2017
Rivlin reports a total of 200 pieces were burned up in the fire, including works by street artist Keith Haring and painter Damien Hirst.
Larry Schoenberg, who ran Belmont Music from his Palisades home, lost digital files and 100,000 scores, many by his father, Arnold Schoenberg. The modernist composer died in 1951 and though his original manuscript scores are in a vault in Vienna, photos, notes, letters, books, and memorabilia were lost in the fire.
— Larry Schoenberg (@Belmont2024) April 1, 2022
Fast Company reported that sculpture artist and Altadena gallery owner Brad Eberhard lost everything in the fire, including "50 and 70 of his own sculptures as well as about two dozen pieces of art from his friends and colleagues."
“Every half hour I remember another thing gone,” said Eberhard.
Hip hop producer and DJ Otis Lee Jackson, Jr., known as Madlib, lost "decades of music," including all of his digital music files, in the fire and has established a fund to buy necessities for himself and his family as they start over.
Watercolorist Kim McCarthy lost her entire collection as well as art by sculptor Roger Herman.
Selection of ceramics by Roger Herman at Nino Mier Gallery#rogerherman #ninomiergallery #ceramics #art #artist #artwork #ceramic #contemporaryceramics #artgallery #contemporaryart pic.twitter.com/zeXw9IBXEm
— Raffi Der Haroutunian (@RaffiDerH) April 10, 2023
McCarty also lost works by avant-garde artist Pippa Garner that she kept in her Malibu home.
Pippa Garner, Conceptual Artist With a Satirical Streak #obitpix #pippagarner #conceptualartist #artofinstagram #penandink #drawing #illustration #portraitdrawing pic.twitter.com/xnjHPvJyx1
— PeterLandau (@PeterLandau) January 19, 2025
Forbes reported that in a "tragic turn of fate, the personal library of novelist and art critic Gary Indiana was incinerated the day after the collection was moved to Altadena, where the Eaton fire struck." The former Village Voice art critic died in October.
The Getty Museum, which has withstood at least two major fires in recent years, has set up the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund with the goal of getting $12 million in donations to provide relief to artists.
Homes where art was created in L.A. were burned to the ground. The house where the Doors penned "Light My Fire" was incinerated.
Author Steven Pressfield, who wrote the books "The Legend of Bagger Vance" and "The War of Art," announced that he'd lost "his sanctuary" where he'd written those books.
And then there are the architectural works of art such as The Zane Grey House, which burned down in Altadena. The Zorthian Ranch was immolated nearby. The ranch was a 48-acre spread that Forbes reports was an artist sanctuary. It hosted people from Bob Dylan, Charlie Parker, and Andy Warhol to quantum physicist Richard Feynman.
Exclusively for our VIPs: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (Which Rhymes With — You Know) Just Confirmed the Fears of Palisades Fire Victims
The losses are still being calculated but they're into the billions of dollars, according to art experts. There's a chance we may never know about some of the works lost in the fires. As the L.A. Conservancy's Adrian Scott Fine concluded, "It is a mass erasure of heritage."
Join the conversation as a VIP Member