The Juicy Getty Story, And Other News

The American Association of Museums announces 17 museums have been newly accredited. Just so you know, only three of those institutions -American Museum of the Moving Image, the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum, and Dumbarton House in Washington, D.C. - are actually new to the list. The other 14 were simply reviewed, a natural process for the AAM. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of those 14.

A new fund for artists can't be a bad thing.

Opera singer Astrid Varnay has died. She's famous for making her Met debut without a rehearsal.

The latest Los Angeles Times story on the Getty is particularly tasty. The paper writes of how the Getty board had the former chief executive's computer scrubbed as part of its internal investigation. The LAT reports on one of the least likely tidbits Munitz might want in the press: His "mentoring" of art student Iris Mickein.

"Munitz repeatedly used Mickein as the business justification for trips, including an $11,000 excursion in August 2002 to Kassel, Germany, where his sole business purpose was to view an art exhibit with her. On a later trip to New York, Munitz billed the Getty for room service breakfast with Mickein, records and interviews show."