Zocalo panel brings together directors of Getty, LACMA and Hammer

Timothy Potts, incoming head of Getty Museum, joins other museum leaders for panel

Timothy Potts, the new head of the Getty Museum, is scheduled to join other museum leaders for a downtown panel Friday. ( Robert LaPrelle / Kimbell Art Museum)

By Jori Finkel

September 4, 2012, 7:33 a.m.

Tuesday is Timothy Potts’ first day on the job as the new director of the Getty Museum, a post that went vacant for nearly two years. Friday he will make his first public appearance, joining LACMA director Michael Govan and Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin for a panel on the changing shape of L.A.’s art museums.

The panel will take place downtown in Grand Park at 6 p.m. as part of Zócalo’s “town square”-style conversations. Up for discussion: the state of cultural philanthropy in L.A., the challenges of engaging local audiences, and next steps for the museums, each of which has grown significantly — and faced serious growing pains — in the last 10 years.

MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch declined to participate, but some of the issues that have plagued MOCA this summer are sure to inform the discussion.

I will be the moderator. Are there any particular questions or topics you'd like the museum directors to address? If so, please comment below or send questions to jori.finkel@latimes.com.

For more information on the event, which is free to the public and then podcast online, visit the Zócalo website.

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Comments (8)

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3400000 at 11:50 AM September 12, 2012

An employee at the Getty owned Pierre Hotel in New York City wondered why there were so many Germans being hired and staying at The Pierre during World War II. He called the FBI and the FBI charged J.P. Getty with Espionage, FBI File 100.1202, June 26, 1940. It was the job of the FBI in peace and in war to root out internal enemies of the USA. The FBI report refers to Getty’s alliance with Göring, Goebbels & Hitler. FBI reported in 1942; that the Getty owned Spartan Aircraft Company which was the world's largest aeronautical school trained Nazis in Florida to become pilots during WWII even Pearl Harbor was attacked. 43,000 people were killed in the UK while J. Paul Getty was in Berlin still shipping oil to Hitler five months before Pearl Harbor; December 7, 1941. The mother of J.P. Getty was German. As aristocrats with treasures of art were executed -- beginning in 1933 -- with the outbreak of war; Getty assiduously added to his vast collection with the Nazis. The Ardabil carpet and Rembrandt of Marten Looten are at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Gainsborough of Christie purchased in 1938 is at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

3400000 at 11:49 AM September 12, 2012

MACDONALD BANK is going forward in Washington, D.C. with the $22,000,000,000 Getty/Hitler war crimes lawsuit based on J. Paul Getty’s support for Hitler beginning in 1938 and the GETTY OIL COMPANY shipments of oil during the Battle of Britain.

MACDONALD BANK

- v. -

J. PAUL GETTY TRUST; GORDON GETTY; RONALD GETTY; J. PAUL GETTY JR. ESTATE; MARK GETTY; ANNE GETTY EARHART; CLAIRE GETTY PERRY; CAROLINE GETTY; CALIFORNIA LT. GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM; CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT NANCY PELOSI AND LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART.

2003 documents declassified by UK Warfare Ministry reveal that in Oct. 1941 the pro-Nazi Jean Paul Getty employed and lodged Nazis at his Pierre Hotel in New York City; Nazis who were involved in spying on and sabotaging Allied Forces’ war production plants.

3400000 at 11:49 AM September 12, 2012

I earned the Getty Oil Company shareholders 4 Billion Bucks
On the Reserve acquisition; the way they treat me -- it really sucks!
As the Getty inheritors bask in glee;
All I asked for was that they look after me.
Four billion dollars they earned on Reserve
My fee I surely deserve.
It turns out J.P. Getty may have been a Nazi;
His family even goes back to Germany.
With Hitler, Goring & Goebbels he did stand;
While trying to undermine the American land!
For paintings & artifacts he did receive
With his oil he was able to deceive!
Hoover & the FBI & Roosevelt they knew
That J.P. Getty & espionage he drew!
Many a young lad and Jew did die
As planes dropped bombs from the sky.
For years while Getty sat in Berlin
He may have committed many a sin.
The ashes and smoke from the chimneys it rose
While old man Getty sat cozy; he chose.
With artwork held tightly under his arm
Still dripping in blood -- as the real owner met harm.
Into the ovens & on meat-hooks, bullets between the eyes
Listen very carefully you can still hear their cries!
While the Gettys sit in England; at their estate at Wormsley
And Gordon sings in San Francisco
With his 727 in tow.
The Getty museum sits atop Malibu
While the corpses of World War 2 scream -- J.P. Getty -- We know you!

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