Getty Operating Deficit Soars: Wood Cuts Jobs, Goats Cut Underbrush UPDATED

New Hire at the Getty?

The J. Paul Getty Trust, which recently posted its fiscal 2007 annual report online, last year incurred a staggering operating deficit of $49.36 million on a budget of $307.7 million. The previous year, the deficit was $18.29 million on a $293.57-million budget.

This growing shortfall is likely one of the reasons for the recently announced elimination of 114 jobs, including 40 layoffs. Anne-Marie O'Connor of the LA Times recently quoted this explanation for the cuts by trust president James Wood:

The whole goal here is to focus the Getty on the core mission of the visual arts. This is to ensure that we have flexible funds to devote to both building our collections in the museum, the research institute and the library and undertake targeted strategic initiatives where we feel we can really make a difference...

...and maybe also to insure something resembling a balanced budget. The main contributing factor to the spike in the deficit from the previous year was the decline in contributions from $36.2 million in fiscal 2006 to only $2.2 million in fiscal 2007. Because of its already fabulous wealth, the Getty has a hard time soliciting donations.

The endowment, as of the June 30th end of the fiscal year, was a hefty $6.4 billion, compared to $5.6 billion in fiscal 2006, so times are not that tough. Unlike most museums, the Getty reports the total value of its collections on its financial statement---$1.8 billion. Capitalizing collections in this manner is something most museums resist, because they do not regard collections as assets than can be tapped for operations. Getty spokesperson Ron Hartwig acknowledged to me that "most other museums do not list their works of art on their balance sheet. We are taking a look at this."

Despite its vast wealth, the Getty feels compelled to cut back its window-washing to "once a year instead of three times," as revealed by Wood to the LA Times. And I've never encountered a museum press release like the recent Getty Goat announcement: It has hired about 60 of these beasts as landscapers, "to nibble away the flammable brush around its 110-acre hillside campus in Brentwood."

Some of the fired Getty employees may be disgruntled, but at least the new hires are happy. According to Lynne Tjomsland, manager of grounds and gardens, quoted in the Getty's press release:

The goats love their work.

UPDATE: Patricia Woodworth, the Getty Trust's chief financial officer, has informed me that the "large contribution of the Stark Sculpture Collection" in fiscal 2006 is what accounted for the unusually high figure for contributions that year. She added that the Getty's operating results are significantly impacted by the depreciation charge, which in fiscal 2007 amounted to $47.8 million, compared to $45 million the previous year.