As gratifying as it is to learn that the J. Paul Getty Trust has finally
found a new president and CEO, I can't help but feel that the
announcement today that longtime Art Institute of Chicago
director James Cuno has accepted the position represents the
beginning of yet another disastrous chapter in the history of this
poorly-run, scandal-plagued Los Angeles institution. It is a perfect
recipe for internal conflict and tension.

Until today the Getty has been adrift, lacking both a top executive at
the Trust and a director for the Getty Museum. This unfortunate
situation came about after the former president, James Wood,
himself a former director of the Art Institute, effectively fired the accomplished previous museum
director, Michael Brand, and then suddenly passed away. It was no secret that Wood
clashed with Brand, meddling constantly in the museum and its
management. Brand got sick of it and quit.

So why would the Getty board have chosen to replicate the same
disastrous management structure — to hire another veteran museum
director (from the same Chicago institution, no less) to be its
president, who in turn will have to choose a museum director to work for
him? This is not just déjà vu, it smacks of an institution that is
incapable of even recognizing that there is a problem with its management
structure. They have just set themselves up for the same old antagonisms
to arise all over again.

Surely Cuno will want to have a say in how the Getty museum is being
run; after all, he has spent his whole career running museums and knows a
thing or two about doing this sort of job. Fair enough. But, who, then,
knowing all this, will want to work under him?

No serious and credible candidate will now want the job of Getty Museum
director.

The same issue arose at the Guggenheim museum following the
acrimonious departure of Lisa Dennison — the board could not find
a replacement because no museum director wanted to work under Thomas
Krens, who retained his titled as the head of the foundation. In
the end the board pushed out Krens, bringing in Richard Armstrong
to take on both positions.

The Getty should do the same. Cuno is a seasoned and experienced museum
director and would be adept at running the museum. But to place him in
the role of president and then invite him to hire another museum
director is to force the institution either into hiring an inferior
candidate or a stooge. Given the Getty's resources, this choice is
frankly insane.