The J. Paul Getty Museum's former antiquities curator, Marion True, received a $400,000 personal loan from two wealthy art collectors just days after the museum closed a deal to acquire their collection, records and interviews show.
True was a driving force behind the Getty's 1996 acquisition of Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman's 300-piece collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan artifacts, considered one of the finest private antiquities holdings in the world. The Getty paid $20 million for 32 pieces in the collection, and received the rest as a donation.
Three days after the deal was closed, records show, Lawrence Fleischman agreed to lend True $400,000 with an interest rate of 8.25 %, market rate at the time. The loan was unsecured.
True used the loan to repay money she had borrowed to buy a Greek vacation home from an antiquities dealer with whom she was also conducting business on the Getty's behalf.
True retired abruptly last month after The Times inquired about the purchase of the Greek house. Getty officials said the loan was a breach of the museum's conflict-of-interest policy.
By repaying the first loan with money borrowed from the Fleischmans around the time of the Getty's transaction with the collectors, True created an even greater conflict, members of the Getty Trust Board of Trustees and outside ethics experts said Wednesday.
The Getty's conflict-of-interest rules bar employees from borrowing money from any "individual or firm with whom the trust does business of any kind."
"Of course we think it's a conflict," said John Biggs, chairman of the Getty board. "I think everybody's uncomfortable with it, but we're not sure where to go from here."
Biggs is also chairman of a special committee of the Getty board formed last month to look into the allegations involving True.
True, indicted by Italian authorities for allegedly trafficking in looted art, appeared Wednesday in a Rome courtroom as her trial resumed. Her attorney in Los Angeles declined to comment.
The Getty's acquisition of the Fleischman collection is expected to figure prominently in her trial. The Italians allege that True used that collection to obtain artifacts that had been recently excavated and smuggled out of Italy.
The special committee is also investigating Getty Trust Chief Executive Barry Munitz's use of tax-exempt Getty funds. Munitz is under investigation by the California attorney general's office, which launched its inquiry after The Times disclosed in June that Munitz had spent lavishly on perks and travel.
