James N. Wood President of the $7.8 Billion Getty Trust Died at Age 69

Written by Kelley Crow Sunday, 13 June 2010 20:44

Los Angeles, CA - Getty Trust President and chief executive James N. Wood died late Friday night of natural causes, board chairman Mark S. Siegel announced Saturday. Wood, 69, was reportedly in good health and his death was unexpected. Wood came out of retirement to accept the job as Getty president in December 2006. He arrived in the wake of financial and other upheavals related to the tumultuous tenure of the trust's prior president, Barry Munitz, who resigned the post early in his second term. Wood, a highly respected former museum director, had been at the helm of the Art Institute of Chicago for 25 years before his retirement to Rhode Island.

Wood's extensive museum record included the directorship of the St. Louis Art Museum (1975-80) and positions at Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as trustee positions at the Harvard University Art Museums, the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and other notable institutions. His experience was seen as an essential ingredient in restoring confidence in the Getty Trust.

In a statement, Siegel noted that Wood went about the challenge, which was soon complicated by turmoil in the U.S. economy, "with great kindness, strength and dignity."

Wood is survived by his wife, Emese, as well as daughters Lenke and Rebecca and their families.

James N. Wood, who died Friday at age 69, was a leader of museum leaders. Wood was known within the art world for serving as a highly principled model for and mentor to other museum directors.

He was a longtime member of the Assn. of Art Museum Directors. And he co-founded the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors with James Cuno, then head of the university’s art museums, in the 1990s. The program brought museum directors from different cities to the Harvard campus to take seminars on business and poetry, exchange ideas on art, unplug and recharge.


Cuno’s 2003 book, “Whose Muse?” came out of this program and included an essay by Wood exploring the very purpose of art museums. He wrote about the various ways in which museums can establish the authority and leadership “essential to gaining and justifying the public’s trust.”

The J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthiest arts organization. The trust, which has an endowment of $4.5 billion and total assets of $7.8 billion, funds the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as well as the Getty Research Institute, the Conservation Institute and the Getty Foundation.

Mr. Wood joined the Getty three years ago after serving as director of the Art Institute of Chicago for 24 years. During his tenure, the Getty acquired Paul Gauguin's "Arii Matamoe (The Royal End)" and returned a group of looted antiquities to the Italian and Greek governments. Mr. Wood is also credited with persuading the Getty's four divisions to collaborate more closely on projects.

His death could have a destabilizing effect on the Getty, which is still trying to rebuild its endowment following the recession. The trust also needs to hire a new museum director following Michael Brand's departure in January.

In a statement, the Getty's new chairman, Mark Siegel, praised Mr. Wood's "quiet, yet firm leadership."