J. Paul Getty Trust - History

History

The J. Paul Getty Museum Trust was established by oilman J. Paul Getty in 1953. Getty founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American. At his death, he was worth more than $2 billion. Getty died in 1976 and left the bulk of his estate, including nearly $660 million worth of stock in Getty Oil, to the J. Paul Getty Museum Trust. Legal conflicts over the will took years to resolve, but in 1982 the trust finally received Getty's full bequest. The trust began to add a number of new programs in 1982, and in February 1983, it petitioned the court to change its name to the J. Paul Getty Trust.

In 1997 Barry Munitz was named the president and CEO of the trust. He began work in January 1998, succeeding Harold M. Williams, the first president of the Getty Trust, who oversaw construction of the $1 billion Getty Center designed by architect Richard Meier. With an endowment of $4.2 billion, the Getty Trust is the wealthiest art institution in the world. Early in his tenure, Munitz reorganized the Getty Trust, closing two of the institution's six programs—the Getty Information Institute and the Getty Education Institute. To deal with long-run financial issues, he sought to cultivate relationships with donors and corporate partners. His leadership became increasingly controversial as the Getty Trust was embroiled in numerous controversies relating to the provenance of various antiquities in the Getty Museum's collections and Munitz' expense account. In the midst of an investigation by the California Attorney General, Munitz resigned in 2006 and was forced to "forgo his severance package of more than $2 million, and reimburse the Getty Trust for $250,000 after alleged improprieties including lavish expense account spending."

On December 4, 2006, the trust announced the hiring of art historian James N. Wood, the former Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, as the trust's new president and CEO, replacing Barry Munitz, who was forced to step down earlier in the year. In 2009, after a substantial drop in the trust's assets, Wood cut nearly 100 employees at the trust's various operations, most at the Getty Museum. Fees for parking at the museum and the Getty Villa were raised by 50% to $15. Wood died suddenly of natural causes on June 12, 2010. In May 2011 James Cuno, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, was named president and chief executive of the Getty Trust, to take office in August.