This article illustrates the rise of the Getty Research Institute as a major conservator and collector of video archives, describing the development of its research department and giving a brief history of some of its major acquisitions, the largest being one from the Long Beach Museum of Art in 2005. The collection at the Getty has been building since 1982 and is one of the world's largest. Three major exhibitions, showcasing a fraction of the Getty's video holdings, include work by Allan Kaprow, whose work was another of its pivotal acquisitions, helping to put the collection where it is today. Part of the article also describes how artist Martin von Haselberg came to view one of his 1970s video pieces at the Institute, a work whose existence he'd virtually forgotten about.