When American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty's private collection of art and historic artefacts outgrew his ranch house in Malibu, the billionaire decided to build a museum on the same site. The building took the form of a first-century Roman country house.

Getty hired architectural firm Langdon & Wilson to undertake the design, which was based on the plans of the ancient Villa dei Papiri, just outside the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, a settlement famously buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

He even engaged archaeologist Norman Neuerburg, who had studied the ruins of Herculaneum, to be a consultant on the project.

Ancient Rome reborn: inside 8 real-life Roman villa reconstructions