The Art Lost in L.A. Fires

The Los Angeles wildfires have claimed celebrities’ homes and upended awards season. Now, reports are emerging of the irreplaceable creative work lost in the fires, from music files to paintings to memorabilia. It will be hard to assess the breadth of loss for weeks, but Art News reported that art insurers are expecting it to be massive. “This is going to be substantial and possibly one of the most impactful art losses ever in America,” Simon de Burgh Codrington, managing director of Risk Strategies, said. Below, some of the biggest artistic losses from the fires, including art by Andy Warhol and Gary Indiana’s library.

Historic homes

Several residential landmarks were lost in the fires including some listed on the National Register of Historic Places, reports Forbes. The Andrew McNally House, a 1887 Queen Anne-style mansion, and Zane Grey Estate, home to novelist Zane Grey, were both burned down in the Eaton fires. Jazz singer Anne Keeler’s former home was lost to the Palisades fire.

Madlib beats

The influential hip-hop producer’s home burned down. According to a donation link, he lost “decades of music” in the fire, along with equipment.

Arnold Schoenberg scores and memorabilia

When Larry Schoenberg’s home burned down, he also lost troves of scores by his father, the modernist Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. Larry ran Belmont Music Publishing from his Pacific Palisades home and lost an estimated 100,000 scores in the fire, the New York Times reports. The fire also took many of Schoenberg’s letters, photographs, and books. Schoenberg’s original manuscripts, kept in Vienna, are safe, but the scores will be difficult to replace, since Belmont’s digital backups also burned. Larry Schoenberg called the loss “brutal.”

Gary Indiana’s books

The late writer’s personal library had just arrived at a house in Altadena on January 7, according to the writer Colm Tóibín, which was set to become an artists residence. But the house burned, along with a collection that included “the signed editions, the rare art books, the weird books, the books Gary treasured,” Tóibín wrote in The London Review of Books.

Dozens of Warhol paintings

Art collector Ron Rivlin lost millions of dollars of art when his Pacific Palisades home burned down, including around 30 Andy Warhol pieces. Rivlin’s losses included a collection of iconic Campbell’s soup can prints and a set of prints of figures like Mickey Mouse and Superman, known as Warhol’s “Myths,” per the New York Times. Rivlin said he lost more than 200 works in total, also including art by Keith Haring and Damien Hirst. “It’s dust at this point,” he said of his home. However, Rivlin was able to take three Warhols with him when he evacuated.

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• Celebrities Who Have Lost Their Homes in the L.A. Fires