May Help Stem Artwork Exodus : Getty II Gives British Gallery $62.5 Million

The estranged son of the late oil magnate and philanthropist J. Paul Getty made a $62.5-million grant Thursday to Great Britain’s National Gallery that could result in a heated competition for artworks with the wealthy Getty Museum in Malibu.

The grant by John Paul Getty II was announced by the National Gallery in London. It is reportedly the largest such bequest in the 161-year history of the museum and could result in a tripling of the annual acquisitions budget for Britain’s state art collection.

The Getty gift “was more than we had ever dreamed of,” said banker Jacob Rothschild, chairman of the National Gallery’s board of trustees.

The new grant comes amid mounting concern in Britain over escalating prices in the international art market and the impact of the Getty Museum’s aggressive acquisitions of European art since 1981, when the estate of the late billionaire was settled.

“None of the American galleries needs any help from me, least of all the J. Paul Getty Museum,” the 52-year-old Getty said in a statement issued from a London clinic where he is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness.

“The most important thing I have to do in life is to see that the income is used for the best possible purpose,” Getty said.

Last summer, Getty used his fortune to aid Britons in blocking the Getty Museum’s attempts to purchase a 14th-Century Italian masterpiece. The country’s growing concern over the transfer of artworks was acknowledged Thursday by Arts Minister Lord Gowrie.

Calling the Getty gift an act of “profound generosity,” Lord Gowrie said the new endowment will “help the (National) Gallery to acquire works of art which might otherwise go overseas.”

“The prime purpose of the fund is to enable the gallery to acquire paintings for the collection. But the fund will also be available for general purposes,” said the National Gallery’s Rothschild.

In Los Angeles, a spokeswoman for the Getty Museum downplayed the potential for conflict between the two Getty art funds and insisted that it is in the best interest of the art world that Britain’s National Gallery have a well-funded acquisitions program. “They need it desperately,” said the museum’s Philippa Calnan.

‘Absolutely Delighted’

“We are absolutely delighted for our friends at the National Gallery and the British public,” she said.

Under terms of the Getty gift, the National Gallery will receive $25 million immediately and an additional $37.5 million “as soon as is practicable,” Rothschild said.

At current interest rates, the new Getty endowment could easily produce an annual income exceeding $6 million, significantly increasing the National Gallery’s current acquisitions budget of about $3.45 million a year.

In contrast, the Getty Museum’s annual budget for acquisitions is about $80 million, and the museum has made its wealth and presence felt throughout the international art world. The Getty’s purchasing power has been felt especially in Britain, which in the last year has lost artworks by Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyke and others to the Malibu-based museum.

The director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philippe de Montebello, called the Getty gift to the National Gallery a “substantial amount of money” for any museum’s acquisition program and one that dwarfs his own purchasing budget. He noted, however, that Britain’s concern about its art treasures leaving the country extends well beyond just the Getty Museum’s string of well-publicized purchases.

‘Just One Factor’

“The Getty is one element, albeit an important one,” Montebello said. “Of the hundreds of millions of dollars (spent in the international art market), the Getty is just one factor.”

The National Gallery’s collection includes about 2,200 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Titian, Turner, Constable, Van Gogh, Cezanne and other masters.

The gallery’s new endowment is being established by an American recluse who lives in London’s exclusive Chelsea district. Getty has a reputation for eccentricity and over the years has donated to a variety of causes, including striking coal miners, baby seals and orphans. He is reportedly one of the world’s wealthiest men and lives on an annual income of $35 million from his family fortune. Getty and his father were not on speaking terms when the latter died in 1976.

Already the younger Getty’s money has been used to thwart a major purchase by the Getty Museum. Last summer, Getty donated more than $500,000 to the Manchester City Art Gallery to purchase a Crucifixion attributed to 14-Century Sienese master Duccio di Buoninsegna. The Getty Museum had bid $2.4 million for the painting but, under British law, Britons were given the opportunity to match the price.

April Controversy

In April, the Getty Museum sparked yet another controversy in Britain with its record $10.5-million bid for “The Adoration of the Magi” by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna. On Monday, the British government announced a routine six-month embargo on the export of the Mantegna painting to give Britons an opportunity to beat the American museum’s offer.

The Mantegna is highly prized by Scotland’s National Gallery, which is now headed by Timothy Clifford, the man who spearheaded Manchester’s drive to keep the Duccio in Britain. It was unknown whether Britain’s new Getty endowment might be used in an attempt to purchase the Mantegna.