Recent Times coverage of the Getty Museum

July 27, 2006

Lockyer Admits to Lunch With Getty's Ex-Chief

While he was under investigation by the state attorney general's office for financial improprieties, former J. Paul Getty Trust Chief Executive Barry Munitz turned to a close friend for consolation — Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

October 3, 2006

State Ends Inquiry, Names Monitor for Getty Trust

After a yearlong investigation, the California attorney general's office has concluded that the J. Paul Getty Trust's former chief executive, Barry Munitz, and board of trustees misused organization funds on lavish travel, gifts and perks.

September 2, 2006

THE STATE

Investigators Secretly Mined Munitz's Records

On a Saturday morning in early December, a group of outsiders dressed in jeans arrived at the J. Paul Getty Trust to carry out a secret plan: copying the computer hard drives in the offices of Chief Executive Barry Munitz without his knowledge.

August 20, 2005

MUSEUMS

Already in the whirl

The new director of the J. Paul Getty Museum has a thing for art in its own place.

August 18, 2005

ART

What's the Getty up to?

Barry MUNITZ, president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, raised hackles in the art world with his 1998 revelation that the trust would seek corporate sponsorship for its programs and private gifts of money and artworks. The specter of the extraordinarily rich patriarch wooing away potential donors from its poor cousins caused some observers to cry foul.

August 17, 2005

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

Getty's director needs artistry

Michael Brand has an excellent reputation and rock-solid credentials as an art museum man. That's a good thing, because he's going to need them.

August 16, 2005

MUSEUM

Getty names a respected but low-profile director

The troubled J. Paul Getty Museum's highly publicized search for a leader came to an end Monday with the appointment of Michael Brand, a Harvard-educated Australian who has headed the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond for the last five years.

August 13, 2005

MUSEUMS

More PR work awaits Getty

The signs emanating from high in the Brentwood hills are unmistakable: The world's richest art institution is toiling to rehab its image.

August 2, 2005

MUSEUMS

State examines spending at Getty

In the latest in a series of setbacks for the world's richest art institution, the California attorney general's office has opened a wide-ranging inquiry into financial practices at the J. Paul Getty Trust, according to a confidential memorandum.

June 23, 2005

MUSEUMS

Senator rebukes Getty

Amid national attention to excesses at nonprofits, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has rebuked the board of the J. Paul Getty Trust, saying it has failed to curb Chief Executive Barry Munitz's lavish pay, perks and travel.

June 10, 2005

MUSEUMS

The Munitz collection

The world's richest art organization was facing hard times in spring 2003.

December 15, 2002

MUSEUMS

Seven million visits later ...

Five and a half years ago, when dust was still rising at the Getty Center and all the world was speculating about what, exactly, the $1.3-billion castle on a hill would be, the Getty's No. 1 art guy made an astonishing statement. "We have gained respect for visitors who don't come to a museum with the idea they are visiting a school or library, but as if they are going to a park," said John Walsh, a scholar of Dutch painting who directed the J. Paul Getty Museum from 1983 to 2000.