Michael Brand, via Apollo

Here is an email message circulated internally yesterday from Getty Director Michael Brand announcing his departure. He gives no indication why he is leaving the post:

Dear Getty Museum Staff:

For those of you unable to attend this morning’s Museum all-staff meeting, I wanted to write to you to let you know that after four greatly rewarding years as Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, I am stepping down as of January 29.

I was brought to the Getty in 2005 to provide a strategic vision and strong leadership that would help the Museum solve a number of outstanding problems and re-establish its reputation as one of the world’s greatest art museums.  I am extremely proud of what I have been able to accomplish with you towards those goals over these past four years.  The contribution of the Museum Senior Staff team that I was able to put together has been a key factor in this success.

The great professionalism of all of you who work for this Museum continues to astound me.  We have been through a number of significant challenges together and, through them all, I have been constantly impressed by your total dedication to serving our public and making the Getty Museum the world leader it is today.  None of what I have achieved could have been possible without you and so for that, I must say a heartfelt thank you.

With the successful re-opening of the Getty Villa in early 2006, I had the privilege of being the first director of the Getty Museum to oversee the full two-campus operation, and soon afterwards we opened the spectacular new Center for Photographs at the Getty Center.  These two facilities will forever make their mark on both the Getty as a whole and the city of Los Angeles.

I am especially pleased that we were able to break through a deadlock and settle claims by Italy and Greece for certain objects in our antiquities collection, and that we now enjoy a renewed relationship with the governments of both those countries.  The fruits of the partnership with Italy have included the extraordinary loans to the historic Bernini exhibition and the current loan of the phenomenal Chimaera of Arezzo, all of which have brought this institution much public and critical acclaim.

Brilliant new acquisitions over the past four years have made an indelible mark in all areas of the Museum’s permanent collection, and we have looked in new geographic directions for exhibitions and to new technologies for the delivery of some of our inspiring educational programs.  The list of books published, and the quality of design in all of our endeavors has been second to none.

Perhaps most of all, I am proud to have instilled a culture at the Getty Museum in which nurturing differing points of view and promoting robust debate are seen as an essential component of our creative process.

After a break in Los Angeles, I look forward to continuing the same interests that have inspired me here at the Getty.

I am grateful that my good friend and colleague, David Bomford, has agreed to serve as the Museum’s interim director until my successor is hired.  I will work with David to ensure a smooth transition through the end of January.

Thank you so much for an extraordinary four years at the Getty Museum.  Tina and I, and our daughters Isabel and Claudia, will miss you all greatly.  I hope our paths cross many times in the future.

Michael