ARTS

New Director: Salvatore Settis, a noted Italian art historian and former director of the University of Pisa’s Institute of Archaeology, has been appointed as the new director of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. Settis, who is scheduled to take the post in January, has previous ties to Getty programs--he was a Getty Scholar in 1988-89, has been on the Getty Art History Information Program advisory committee since 1987, and is on the committee planning the future of the existing J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu after the opening of the planned Getty Center in West L.A. He replaces founding center director Kurt W. Forster, who left in July for a position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The center’s associate director, Thomas F. Reese, will continue as acting director until Settis’ arrival.