Getty adds four to board

The J. Paul Getty Trust, with its collection practices under fire in Italy, its finances under scrutiny by the state attorney general and a new center for the study of antiquities about to open in Malibu, has expanded its board from 12 trustees to 16.

The newcomers -- Stewart A. Resnick, William E.B. Siart, Mark S. Siegel and Peter J. Taylor -- bring a long list of financial and educational credentials at a time when critics have accused the trust’s sitting board of inattention. But the newcomers’ lack of arts expertise and diversity prompted board member Ramon Cortines to step down from his role on the board’s nominating committee.

Only recently, Cortines said, the full board had voiced its ambition to seek members who have art backgrounds and better reflect Southern California’s diversity. Though Taylor is African American and each individual may be a strong candidate, these new choices overall don’t reflect that breadth, Cortines said.

“We all recognized a lack of people with art backgrounds. While you need attorneys and businessmen, you also need art people,” he said. “We can’t talk about ethnic diversity in this state and not have people that look like some of these people.”

With the exception of Siegel, who sits on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, none of the newcomers brings notable background in visual arts.

Cortines also noted that because “we are under the microscope,” this isn’t the best time to add board members with close ties to Getty President Barry Munitz, whose perks and spending habits have been questioned. Until March, Resnick and Munitz served together as board members at LeapFrog Enterprises, an Emeryville-based educational product company.

Board Chairman John H. Biggs was in transit and unavailable for comment, but in a prepared statement he hailed the new trustees for their “deep familiarity with our community, and a passion for the arts that support the Getty’s varied goals.”

The board expansion comes amid a flurry of external and internal probes. The Italian trial focuses on former antiquities curator Marion True, who is accused of knowingly buying more than three dozen looted Italian artifacts for the Getty’s collections in the 1990s. (True and Getty officials have maintained her innocence.) The state investigation of Getty finances was prompted by Times reports of Munitz’s perks and spending and the trust’s 2002 sale of property to Munitz’s friend Eli Broad for $700,000 less than its appraised value.

In October, Getty Chairman Biggs announced that outside attorney Ronald Olson would join a five-member board committee in a board review of the trust’s policies and practices.

About the new members:

Resnick is chief executive and chairman of Roll International Corp., which includes Teleflora, Fiji Water, the Franklin Mint and Paramount Agribusiness. His other board memberships include Caltech, Bard College and Conservation International.

Siart, former chairman and chief executive of First Interstate Bancorp, has served as board chairman for Walt Disney Concert Hall and as a board member for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Music Center Foundation. He serves as chairman of the board of Excellent Education Development, a nonprofit group that develops and manages charter public schools.

Siegel, an attorney, is founder and president of ReMY Investors & Consultants, and chairman of Patterson-UTI Energy Inc., a Texas-based oil services company. Apart from his MOCA board membership, Siegel also sits on the board of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Taylor, a managing director at Lehman Bros., has served as executive director of the Coro Foundation and as chairman of the UCLA Foundation’s board. Over the years, the size of the board has fluctuated; it reached 18 members in 1997-98. New Getty trustees are recruited and elected by others already on the board, including Munitz. Like board members at most nonprofit organizations, Getty trustees receive no pay and volunteer their expertise to help steer the institution in its mission as an educational organization that focuses on the visual arts.

In addition to the Getty Museum, the trust oversees conservation and research institutes and a grant-making foundation. Its endowment stands at more than $5 billion -- a built-in wealth that means its board members aren’t expected to offer the hefty annual donations that are part of board membership at most museums and nonprofit organizations.