Getty Trust Put On Probation!

http://www.artsjournal.com/man/archives20051201.shtml#104312

http://www.cof.org/Content/PressRelease/Display.cfm?pressReleaseID=3273

First, thanks to the poster on my previous post who alerted me to Tyler Green's coverage of the latest events at the Getty and thanks to Tyler for bringing to everyone's attention that the Getty has been put on official probation by the Council of Foundations.

Then comes today's story by Tyler - and the story in the LA Times.

http://www.artsjournal.com/man/archives20051201.shtml#104316

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-getty21dec21,1,2522519.story

First Tyler:

The Getty's reply is inadvertently comic: So many people are investigating us we can't keep up. Recap: Here's who is investigating the Getty in various ways:

The Los Angeles Times;

The California Attorney General;

The Council on Foundations;

Italy. The country.

Greece. Also a country.

The Getty's own board -- which must be wishing they'd been a little more observant all along because this is beyond embarrassing at this point -- with an assist from 'outside' attorney Ronald L. Olson;

and The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Los Angeles lodge. (OK, I made that one up. Probably.)

About the only body with jurisdiction that isn't already investigating the Getty is... the Senate Finance Committee. If COF further disciplines the Getty, the door for a Senate investigation opens wide.

MAN prediction: Sometime in the next 10 days the LA Times editorial board will call for Munitz' ouster. Will that be all or will they call for board chair John Biggs' removal too?

Pet peeve: Will the LA Times please stop calling the Getty "the world's richest art institution?"
The phrase is perfectly correct. But the Getty is more than that: It's the third-largest foundation in America, an industry titan. The mess at the Getty is of interest to me personally because it's an arts organization, but L'Affaire Getty an important national story because it's behind only the Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation in assets.

Then the LAT:

Nonprofits Panel Puts Getty on Probation

The 60-day penalty is for failure to turn over all data sought in a probe of the trust's finances.

Robin FieldsTimes Staff Writer December 21, 2005

The Council on Foundations, the main industry group for the nation's nonprofits, said Tuesday that it has placed the J. Paul Getty Trust on probation for 60 days after the trust failed to turn over all the information requested for an investigation into its financial practices.

But the really good news here is that Tyler has predicted the LA Time's editorial board will grow some balls and call for the ouster of Munitz - and hopefully, Biggs - in the next ten days. (The problem then, though, is that this would still leave a board of Munitz followers with close to zero expertise in pre-20th Century art.. )

Question - is this predicted LA Times editorial inside information - or wishful thinking. My bet in on the... latter, alas.

But we can hope!