Los Angeles – The J. Paul Getty Trust, already tarnished by controversy over its financial dealings and charges that a former official dealt in looted art, now has another problem: The $3.5 million house it bought for its new museum director is contaminated with mold.
The trust owns a house next to the J. Paul Getty Museum – four bedrooms with a view of the Pacific – but it was determined to be too small. On Tuesday, the trust backed out of a deal for a $5.5 million house because of structural problems.
In the meantime, the Getty is paying $15,000 a month to rent a house for Michael Brand and his family.
The house next to the museum near Malibu was bought five years ago for $2.6 million. Brand looked at it, but Getty officials said it was too small to hold museum-related events.
The trust then bought the $3.5 million house near UCLA in October. However, a damp spot was discovered, and inspectors opened up walls and found extensive mold. Representatives of the trust said they relied on a 2004 report indicating there was no fungus in the 70-year- old, 4,900-square-foot home.
Getty board chairman John Biggs said the trust is “desperately” trying to get its money back. Officials have consulted attorneys about a possible lawsuit.
“That house is not going to work out, and I think we’re going to essentially come out even,” Biggs said.
Brand, whose annual salary is about $480,000, said a house would not just be for him and his family. “This is a house being bought for the museum,” he said.
The real estate debacle is the latest image problem for the $7 billion trust, which oversees the Getty Museum and divisions of art conservation, research and philanthropy.
The trust’s former antiquities curator, Marion True, is on trial in Italy for allegedly trafficking in looted artifacts.
And the California attorney general is investigating spending by former Getty chief executive Barry Munitz to determine whether it jeopardizes the organization’s nonprofit status. Munitz resigned last week.
