Volume 53, Number 18 · November 16, 2006
The Getty: For Better and Worse
By Martin Filler
The Getty Villa
by Marion True and Jorge Silvetti, with an introduction by Salvatore Settis
J. Paul Getty Trust, 231 pp., $65.00; $39.95 (paper)
The catastrophes that have lately befallen the J. Paul Getty Trust—established by the eponymous oil tycoon in 1953 for 'the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge'—are of such magnitude that only classical mythology seems to offer archetypes equal to this present-day epic of hubris and retribution. Over the past two years, the J. Paul Getty Museum, which during the 1980s became the world's most envied and profligate art institution, has seen a director, Deborah Gribbon, and its senior antiquities curator, Marion True, resign. The Getty Trust's president since 1997, Barry Munitz, was compelled to quit in February, forgo his severance package of more than $2 million, and reimburse the trust for $250,000 after alleged improprieties including lavish expense account spending. Those and other irregularities prompted a United States senator to call for the revocation of the Getty's tax-exempt status.
Review, 5057 words
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