Getty Board Chair to Step Down

John Biggs, chairman of the board of the J. Paul Getty Trust, will resign his post by the end of October, more than eight months before his term was due to end, the trust is expected to announce today.

Biggs, who joined the board in 1999 and was elected chairman in June 2004, has guided the nation’s third-largest private foundation through two years of controversy surrounding former trust Chief Executive Barry Munitz’s use of Getty funds for personal benefit and claims by Italian and Greek authorities that the Getty Museum had acquired looted antiquities.

“We have had to grapple with serious challenges over these past two years,” Biggs said in a statement to be released as part of the announcement. “Clearly mistakes were made and they had to be corrected.”

Biggs said he was confident that the board’s actions and broad policy changes made in recent months “will improve governance and transparency” at the Getty, and help resolve the antiquities disputes with Italy and Greece.

“We’re on the right course as we move forward,” he said in the statement.

Biggs cited the “heavy responsibilities” of the chairman’s position in his decision to resign early, adding that commitments to other organizations and his residence in New York contributed to the decision.

The announcement of Biggs’ departure, which was privately disclosed to the board July 25, comes as The Times has asked Getty officials for information regarding key decisions Biggs made during his leadership of the board, which some current and former board members have criticized.

Next week, the California attorney general’s office is expected to release the results of its yearlong investigation of the Getty, which has focused both on Munitz and the board’s governance.

In a recent interview, Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said the report is likely to find that “insufficient oversight by the trustees” contributed to the Getty’s problems.

Among the issues being investigated are several that involved Biggs, including a $3-million severance agreement awarded to former museum director Deborah Gribbon and a lucrative book deal Munitz awarded former board Chairman David Gardner soon after he left the board.

“My sense of Mr. Biggs was that this must have been the most severe test of his own leadership,” said Warren Bennis, a USC business professor and corporate governance expert. “It was a crucible.”

Biggs, former president and chairman of the TIAA-CREF investment fund, earned a reputation as a national leader on good governance and corporate ethics, and was chairman of the Getty’s audit committee before becoming board chairman.

In the summer of 2005, The Times reported on Munitz’s controversial leadership and extensive use of Getty tax-exempt resources for personal benefit.

At the time, Biggs was a staunch defender of his chief executive, denying for months any impropriety, even as the California attorney general launched his investigation.

The Getty also faced aggressive accusations from Italy and Greece, which charged museum officials with knowingly acquiring looted antiquities over two decades beginning in the 1980s. The claims, which included criminal allegations against former antiquities curator Marion True, forced Biggs and the board to confront difficult realities about the Getty’s past acquisition practices.

Last September, after months of controversy, Biggs and the Getty board initiated an internal probe by attorney Ron Olsen and others from his law firm, Munger, Tolles & Olsen.

Munitz was forced to step down in February, forgoing more than $2 million in pay and reimbursing the Getty $250,000 to settle unresolved disputes. True and trustee Barbara Fleischman were also forced out of their positions because of an undisclosed conflict of interest.

“I think he’s a terrific leader. He’s done a terrific job under very difficult circumstances,” said Agnes Gund, who retired from the Getty board earlier this year. “I have a great deal of admiration for him.”

Munitz, who now teaches at Cal State L.A., said through his attorney: “John Biggs cared deeply about the Getty Trust, he shared in major accomplishments while serving as a trustee, and his departure will be a loss.”

Biggs is the latest of several Getty trustees to leave the beleaguered art institution before their terms expired. After his role as chairman was to end next June, Biggs would have been eligible for another four-year term as a Getty trustee. The Getty decided earlier this year that all subsequent chairmen will retire upon completion of their terms, the statement said.

Just three of the remaining nine trustees were on the board for a significant time during Munitz’s tenure.

None has been named as Biggs’ successor, a decision the board will make in September, a Getty spokesman said. The board is also looking for someone to fill the chief executive post.