The Getty Villa reopened on January 28, 2006, after a long renovation that redefined the Malibu site as the J. Paul Getty Museum's dedicated center for Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art. The redesigned campus, planned by Machado and Silvetti Associates, placed the recreated Roman villa within a new architectural setting meant to suggest an archaeological dig. Its galleries presented antiquities by themes such as gods and goddesses, Dionysos and the theater, and stories of the Trojan War, surrounded by Roman-style gardens and architecture. The reopening mattered because it clarified the Getty's two-campus identity: the Getty Center for European paintings, manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and photographs, and the Villa for the ancient Mediterranean collections, conservation study, and public engagement with classical antiquity.
The reopening made the Villa a specialized public home for the Getty's antiquities program.