J Paul Getty

James N. Wood, who helped the J. Paul Getty Trust regain its good name as its president and chief executive over the last three years and led the Art Institute of Chicago through 24 years of growth, died Friday, Getty officials announced. He was 69. Wood's body was found late Friday at his Brentwood home, Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig said. A statement by the Getty Trust said Wood died of natural causes. Wood had been expected to fly to Chicago on Friday morning for a meeting; when he failed to arrive, his wife, art historian and painter Emese Forizs, received a call in Rhode Island where she was with family, Hartwig said.

Was the J. Paul Getty Museum acting in good faith when it purchased one of the finest ancient bronze statues in existence? That will be the central question before an Italian judge after Friday's closing arguments in a long-running legal battle in Pesaro, Italy. At stake is a much-coveted work believed by some to have been created by Alexander the Great's personal sculptor and plundered by Roman soldiers around the time of Christ before being lost at sea. A regional public prosecutor alleges that the Italian fishermen who discovered the Greek statue in 1964 failed to declare it to Italian customs officials and sold it to middlemen, who smuggled it out of the country.

When it came to transforming a 1940s bungalow into a glamorous Hollywood Hills residence, the Leighs made it a family affair. Garrison Leigh, along with his wife, Patrice, and sons Zachary and Aaron, who all run the real estate development and design firm Good Form, teamed up to develop and design the home -- but not without occasional differences of opinion. Garrison jokes that he got an earful from his sons after he made an executive decision to acid-wash the vein-cut travertine tile on the first floor.

The J. Paul Getty Trust, envied as the economic Goliath of the museum world, is slashing its operating budget nearly 25% for the coming fiscal year, an emergency response to investment losses that have totaled $1.5 billion since July and nearly $2 billion since mid-2007. President James Wood said the financial stability of the Getty, the world's richest arts institution, could "fall off a huge cliff" if it delayed drastic cuts and hard times continued.

Days before a threatened cultural embargo was scheduled to take effect, the J. Paul Getty Museum has resumed negotiations with the Italian government over 46 of the museum's disputed antiquities -- opening the door to a possible agreement. In an exchange described by a Getty official as "intense" and "useful," the museum has exchanged letters with Italy's minister of culture, exploring possible settlements of the dispute, authorities from both sides confirmed Monday.

James N. Wood, the new president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, owes his job partly to the indiscretions of his globetrotting predecessor. On Wednesday, in his first speaking engagement in L.A. since arriving to lend his 40 years of museum experience to the image-challenged Getty, he spoke repeatedly about the need to run it with a keen view toward acting locally.

The J. Paul Getty Museum is having what amounts to a garage sale -- only theirs is expected to bring in as much as $2 million. Through Sotheby's auction house, the Getty plans to dispose of 39 paintings, mainly 17th century Dutch and Flemish works that Scott Schaefer, curator of paintings, said were acquired by J. Paul Getty to hang at his homes.

The J. Paul Getty Museum plans to announce today the return of two prized ancient masterpieces to Greece, which has maintained for a decade that they were illegally removed from the country, according to two sources familiar with recent negotiations. The objects are a rare funerary wreath and a marble statue of a woman, both dating to about 400 BC. The Getty bought both objects in 1993 for a total of $4.45 million.

The J. Paul Getty Museum agreed Tuesday to return 26 antiquities to Italy but declared an end to negotiations with Italian officials over 20 other objects, citing an unacceptable ultimatum. The Getty also offered to transfer title of its prized statue of Aphrodite to Italy while both sides continue to investigate its origin, but refused Italy's insistence that any deal include a 2,500-year-old statue, a bronze figure of an athlete -- one of the hallmarks of the museum's collection.