James Cuno

Timothy Potts, who was named director of the Getty Museum in February and who will assume the post in September, no doubt had a busy weekend. As was reported in the British media, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, where Potts currently serves as director, is reeling from a major theft of ancient Chinese artifacts. The Telegraph reported that 18 items including a 14th century Ming jade cup were stolen around Friday evening. The missing pieces also include a jade-carved buffalo from the 16th century, a carved horse from the 17th century and a green and brown jade carved elephant.

New parking fees at the Getty Research Institute in Brentwood have prompted an online petition to protest the change. The petition claims that the new fees are a financial burden to academic researchers, many of whom rely on the GRI for their work.  Starting July 30, the GRI will start charging library readers for parking. The cost will be $15 per visit. The Getty is also selling parking passes, ranging from $50 to $275, that allow for various levels of unlimited parking.   Ron Hartwig, the Getty's chief spokesman, said in an interview that the decision was "difficult to reach.

Timothy Potts has made his first major purchase as the new Getty Museum director: He bought Lieven van Lathem's illuminated manuscript Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies for $6.2 million at Sotheby's Wednesday night in London. The manuscript includes eight half-page miniatures, like the one shown in detail above. There are only three other manuscripts containing this story of a nobleman's adventures in Egypt. In a statement, Potts called it a “richly illustrated manuscript by the greatest illuminator of the Flemish High Renaissance.” In an interview with the L.A. Times for a story in the Dec. 9 Arts & Books section, he described manuscripts as a potential growth area for the Getty, while praising the current collection.

The Getty Museum announced Monday that it would cut 34 jobs, at least 10 of them through layoffs, with the goal of "realizing savings through more effective and efficient operations," a staff memo from Director James Cuno said. The bulk of the cuts will be in the museum's education program. Cuno said the museum would turn the paid positions of "gallery teacher" into duties for docents, who are volunteers. Administrative and "project focused" staff positions in the education department also will be cut. Other jobs in the exhibitions department and imaging services also will be eliminated.

In New York next month, Gustavo Dudamel will receive the award as musician of the year for 2013 from the publication Musical America. In Los Angeles he might well have been the bargain of the year for 2010. The recent filing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's federal tax return for 2010-11 shows that Dudamel earned $985,363 in salary and benefits for 2010, his first full calendar year on the job. In comparison, at least 12 conductors and executives earned $1 million or more from nonprofit arts organizations in the United States that year.

Happy days were here again in 2012 for a number of folks in the executive offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, although it wasn't the best of times for some others on the staff of about 1,250. A “senior management compensation” disclosure dated Jan. 31 and posted on the Getty's website shows that total compensation for the year rose by at least 8.6% for the seven executives and department heads for whom it's possible to make direct comparisons with 2011 earnings. The pay hikes came during a year when 34 employees were laid off from the Getty Museum, including more than a third of the museum's education department.

Responding to a series of embarrassments in which major museums have had to return ancient artifacts obtained under questionable circumstances, America's art museum directors have adopted stronger guidelines for antiquities acquisitions -- including honoring a 1970 U.N. declaration aimed at keeping relics in their homelands. The J.

Hollywood would call it a franchise: The Getty has trademarked the name Pacific Standard Time to build on that brand going forward with different projects. Getty President James Cuno says they are organizing a sequel to Pacific Standard Time that will likely take place in five or six years with art of the Pacific Rim under discussion as a possible theme. But he said the subject has not been finalized: "We don't want to search for a topic and impose that on a group, but we want to go to core museums and say, 'What is the next project we should be considering?

Last time around the focus was Southern California's art history; now homegrown architecture is getting its time in the sun. Getty Trust leaders are announcing Monday the final roster of exhibition and event partners in its Pacific Standard Time spinoff, Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in Southern California, slated to run April through July. They will also be releasing the specific grant amounts given to various museums and institutions: roughly $3.6 million in all. Eight exhibition partners received grants from $260,000 to $445,000 to help mount shows and publish catalogs; eight event partners received grants ranging from $20,000 to $246,000 to organize panels, tours and other programs.

Los Angeles teachers overwhelmingly expressed "no confidence" in L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy in the first vote of its kind in the nation's second-largest school system. In the weeklong referendum that ended Wednesday, 91% of the participating teachers expressed disapproval of Deasy, with about 17,700 of the union's more than 32,000 members casting ballots, the teachers union announced Thursday. The superintendent called the vote "nonsense" even before knowing its outcome, and a group of civic leaders rallied to Deasy's defense.