March 21, 1990: Museum announces that it has acquired Van Gogh's "Irises." The painting has been surrounded in controversy since it was sold at auction in 1987 for a record $53.9 million.
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July 1990: After several years of debate regarding the authenticity of the kouros purchased in 1985, the museum announces that the sculpture is being taken off of exhibit and sent back to the lab for further art-historical and scientific tests. It was later put back on exhibit and is regarded as authentic by the Getty, although some outside scholars continue to question it.
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June 28, 1995: Getty Conservation Institute teams up with the St. Petersburg government and the Russian Academy of Sciences to create the International Center for Preservation to save the cultural heritage of St. Petersburg.
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Spring 1996: California artist Robert Irwin begins grading on the reflecting pool of the center's Central Garden, a 134,000-square-foot project featuring a zigzag path over a stream, leading to a maze of azaleas that appears to float in a pond.
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April 1997: Museum acquires "Landscape With Calm," by 17th century French painter Nicolas Poussin, for $26 million.
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July 6, 1997: J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu closes its doors for a four-year renovation and the museum's collections are moved to the Getty Center. When the villa reopens, it will be a museum and research center for antiquities and comparative archeology.
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July 18, 1997: Barry Munitz, chancellor of the California State University system, is appointed president and chief executive officer of the $4.2-billion J. Paul Getty Trust. He will succeed Harold M. Williams, who has announced his intention to retire on his 70th birthday, Jan. 5, 1998.
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August 1997: Museum acquires David Hockney's "Pearblossom Hwy., 11-18th April 1986, # 2" from the artist for its photography collection.
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September 1997: The trust commissions two major painting installations from L.A. artists. Alexis Smith's "Taste," a play on connoisseurship and cuisine, is installed in the restaurant, and Edward Ruscha's painting of rays of light is placed in the center's auditorium.
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Dec. 16, 1997: Getty Center opens.
Compiled by Jacquelyn Cenacveira / Los Angeles Times Editorial Library
