BlogBack: The Getty Replies to “Latest Shockers”

Ron Hartwig, vice president for communications at the J. Paul Getty Trust, replies to CultureGrrl‘s The Latest Getty Shockers: Time to Come Clean and Clean House:
I know blogs often rely on shock value, and lively rhetoric, but given the serious issues we’ve had to deal with these past two years, and the equally serious and thoughtful way in which we have been dealing with them, I’d like to hope you would rely on what we’ve done to move forward and not fall prey to those who are focused on the past. The past is over, it can’t be undone, but actions can and have been taken to resolve issues moving forward.
Let me address the issues you raise in your latest blog:
1) Information contained in the report prepared for the Board’s Special Committee by outside counsel is confidential and will remain so. I don’t know a Board in existence that can get its job done without the ability to review sensitive information with the expectation that it will remain confidential. That said, respectful of attorney client privilege, we have been completely candid and responsive to the California Attorney General, whose investigation is ongoing, and we will continue to work cooperatively with the AG until its investigation is complete. We are hopeful their report will be issued soon.
2) We issued a release in April when the Council on Foundations removed the Getty Trust from probation that detailed a substantial number of policy and procedural changes made by the Board to improve our governance. If you didn’t get the release, I apologize, but if you did I would hope you would let your readers know that strong and decisive actions have been taken. I’ve attached the release, but it and others we’ve issued dealing with governance issues and antiquities are openly available on our website in our Press Room.
3) We have a very strong Board. A Board that is deeply committed to the financial security of the Getty and insuring that the Getty’s mission is fulfilled. We have an interim CEO [Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundation] who is providing strong leadership, and who has moved to improve internal communications, openness and transparency. If you have not looked at our governance website, which is highly transparent, please do so. Board resumes can be found there, detailed financial information is found there, and the responsibilities of each of the committees are clearly listed in the committee charters.
Lee, if additional issues that need attention or correction surface at the Getty, they will be dealt with. I would hope, rather than joining those who for whatever reason feel it necessary to continue thrashing the Getty, you might be interested in helping your readers to understand the Getty has moved on. Sure, keep us honest by asking questions about the progress we are making, but also keep the issues we are dealing with in perspective against the backdrop of incredible work that is being done by the Getty’s four programs.
Maybe if you’d been here last night, for example, to see the opening of “Hippolytos at the Getty Villa,” the first dramatic offering in the Villa’s new theater, played to a packed house; walked through the “Rubens & Brueghel” exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum or “A Tumultuous Assembly: Visual Poems of the Italian Futurists” at the Getty Research Institute; or knew about the $2 million grant program by the Getty Foundation to support the rebuilding of arts in New Orleans post Katrina; or the Getty Conservation Institute’s work on the “China Principals,” you’d know what I mean by perspective.
[NOTE TO CULTUREGRRL READERS: The Apr. 17 release, referred to in item “2,” is not posted on the Getty’s press website. But you CAN view its new Staff Handbook, effective June 26, 2006, which includes provisions on conflicts of interest and whistleblowing. Also on the website are conflict of interest policies, dated 2006, for staff and trustees.]