Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities

Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities

• J. Paul Getty Museum
• May 03, 2024
• Los Angeles, CA

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About the J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum (“Museum”) is one of the world’s leading art museums, with collections in all principal media of European art from antiquity to 1900. The Museum is located on two sites in Los Angeles, USA: the Getty Villa, which presents the Museum’s collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities; and the Getty Center, which presents the Museum’s collection of European art from medieval times to 1900. Admission is free at both venues, which together welcome approximately two million visitors a year from all over the world.

The Getty Museum is a program of the J Paul Getty Trust, which also includes the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation, all located at the Getty Center.

The Museum seeks to inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance.

The Getty Villa, where the position of Senior Curator of Antiquities is based, is unique among American museums in being devoted exclusively to classical antiquities. Opened to the public in 1974, the Getty Villa was built by the Museum’s founder, J. Paul Getty, as a faithful full-scale replica of the ancient "Villa dei Papiri" in Herculaneum, which was partly excavated in the 18th century, having been buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. From the late 1930s to his death in 1976, Mr. Getty was an avid collector of antiquities, old master paintings, and French 18th century decorative arts, which formed the original nucleus of the Museum’s collections. Among the antiquities, Getty was especially proud of his Roman sculptures, mostly acquired from British aristocratic collections.

Since Getty’s death, the Museum has continued to build the collection of antiquities through purchases and gifts, and now ranges from Cycladic figurines, Greek and south Italian vases, and engraved gems to Romano-Egyptian mummy portraits, papyri, glass, carved amber, silver and gold vessels, and jewelry.

View the full review of the collection on display .

A major renovation and expansion of the Getty Villa in 2006 created a series of conservation studios, conference and meeting rooms, a 250-seat auditorium, an outdoor classical theatre (used for performances of Greek plays), a restaurant, bookstore, and other public amenities. Since 1999, the Villa campus has also been home to the UCLA/Getty three-year master’s degree program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation.

A four-year reinstallation of the Villa galleries was completed in April 2018, replacing the former thematic installation with galleries devoted to culture- and art-historical periods—Greek (EBA to Hellenistic), South Italian, and Etruscan art on the ground floor; and Roman art on the second floor. The inclusion of significant works previously in storage, including Roman sculptures and wall frescoes, as well as long-term loans of Greek and Roman coins, Hellenistic silverware, and Late Antique/Byzantine antiquities from public and private collections, has allowed visitors to enjoy a richer and more comprehensive presentation of some periods.

The reinstallation reassigned three contiguous galleries on the second floor for visiting exhibitions, and one gallery on the first floor for showcasing nonclassical cultures that interacted with the classical world. The current installation of this gallery features "Sculpted Portraits from Ancient Egypt," a loan from the British Museum (opened January 2024). Previous installations were "Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq" (2019-2022), from the British Museum; and "Palmyra: Loss and Remembrance" (2018-2019), from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. The Villa has very active programs of research (including visiting scholars under the program of "The Classical World in Context"), exhibitions, publications, education, and public events (including the performing arts) that engage our diverse local and international audiences. These activities are enhanced by the site’s dramatic architectural and garden setting, featuring peristyles, fountains, a Roman herb garden, an outdoor classical-style theater, and spectacular vistas over the Pacific Ocean.

The Classical World in Context

In 2013 the Museum initiated a series of exhibitions, supported by research, conferences, publications, and education programs under the rubric “The Classical World in Context.” The aim of this program is to provide a richer understanding of how the classical world interacted with the surrounding cultures of the Mediterranean, Near East, and beyond through trade, gift exchange, warfare, diplomacy, religion, and other modalities, having a crucial, and often reciprocal, impact on the cultural trajectories of those regions and peoples. On an approximately three-year cycle, each exhibition and its associated programming investigates the relations between the classical world and a particular non-classical culture/region. The underlying research is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, utilizing a wide range of archaeological, textual, anthropological, and other evidence.

For the first such project, in the 2015-16 academic year, the "Classical World in Context" focused on Egypt and the Classical World from the Bronze Age to the coming of Christianity. The resulting exhibition "Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World" opened at the Getty Center in March 2018. The second exhibition in the series, following the pandemic, was "Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World" in 2022. Upcoming exhibitions will include "Ancient Thrace: Treasures from the Classical World" (2024-2025), "Anatolia and the Classical World" (2026), and "Phoenicians, Philistines, and Canaanites: The Levant and the Classical World" (2028).

Other recent Villa exhibitions of note, outside the "Classical World in Context" program, have included "Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan" from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2022-2023); "Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq" (2019-2022); "Rubens: Picturing Antiquity" (2021-2022); "Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins" (2021); "Buried by Vesuvius: Treasures from the Villa dei Papiri" (2019); "Palmyra: Loss and Remembrance" (2018-2019); "Underworld: Imaging the Afterlife" (2018-2019); and "Plato in L.A.: Contemporary Artists’ Visions" (2018).

Visit past exhibitions on the Getty's .

The origin of the Getty Villa’s antiquities collection lies in Mr. Getty’s purchases from the late 1930s through mid 1970s. This was followed by an active period of acquisition by the Museum in the late 1970s through 1990s. The subsequent appearance of evidence indicating that some of the more recent acquisitions had been illegally excavated led to the restitution of over 40 works to Italy and Greece in 2008. In that year the Getty board also endorsed a strengthened acquisition policy requiring any future antiquity acquisitions to have been outside their source country by 1970, the date of the UNESCO Convention on the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. A small number of other works have since been restituted to Italy by the Getty on the basis of research by Getty staff, or evidence provided by source countries and US authorities. The Museum’s policy continues to emphasize the need to respond to claims in a timely manner, and to base restitution decisions on a thorough examination of the available evidence and applicable law.

Villa Council - Donor Activities

The Villa Council, established in 2001, supports the Getty Villa by helping to fund acquisitions and special projects, including exhibitions, conservation, education, lectures, and research. Current membership of the Council is around 30 individuals who meet twice a year. Recent projects have included conservation treatments of objects from the Getty’s and museums’ collections, as well as research, exhibitions, and other public programs. The activities of the Villa Council are coordinated by the Senior Curator or another designated Curator of Antiquities.

The Opportunity

The J. Paul Getty Museum is seeking the next Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities to oversee curatorial and related scholarly and public activities at the Villa. The successful candidate will be responsible for the presentation and interpretation of the Villa’s collection of ancient art and antiquities, and associated activities, including a vibrant program of international loan exhibitions.

The Senior Curator plays a lead role in building, documenting, installing, and interpreting the display collection of some 1,300 antiquities (plus a study collection), and in coordinating the Classical World in Context program of visiting scholars and exhibitions. The successful candidate also participates in developing the Villa’s ambitious public programs (including the award-winning Outdoor Classical Theatre series), in collaboration with other museum departments.

In 2021, the position of Senior Curator of Antiquities was endowed by Anissa and Paul John Balson II. In recognition of this endowment the full title was changed to the "Anissa and Paul John Balson II Senior Curator of Antiquities."

Qualifications:

The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. or equivalent qualification in the archaeology or ancient art of the Mediterranean world. They will bring: experience of supervising staff and a desire and ability to work effectively as a team player in a collaborative environment; experience in curating exhibitions; a network of international contacts within the museum and academic communities; knowledge of the antiquities market; and a record of scholarly research, publication and public presentation. Preference will be given to candidates who have a broad knowledge of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art, and demonstrated interest in interconnections between the classical world and other cultures of the Near East, Egypt and Eurasia.

The ideal candidate will bring a good general knowledge of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art, from the Late Bronze Age to Byzantium, as well as specialized expertise in a particular period/aspect of the ancient classical world. Demonstrated scholarly knowledge of adjacent non-Classical culture/s is highly desirable. A deep commitment to the understanding, preservation, and interpretation of antiquities will be matched with a desire to engage with new and diverse audiences. They will be an inspiring leader able to demonstrate a genuine commitment to the principles and practices of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion.

This position reports to the Museum’s Associate Director for Collections, and will work closely with the Museum’s Director, who is also a specialist in ancient art.

Major Job Responsibilities

• Supervises a department of nine curators and support staff, nurturing staff development and reviewing their performance
• Provides intellectual leadership to the Villa curatorial staff on all curatorial, exhibition and research programs and related publications, both in-print and online
• Oversees the display and interpretation of the antiquities collection in the Villa galleries
• Oversees the growth of the collection through purchases and gift
• Drawing on their well-established network of contacts in the international museum and academic communities, represents the Getty Villa, its programs, and collections to global audiences, furthering the goals of existing co-operative agreements with foreign governments and museums, and developing joint projects such as exhibitions, conservation, and research
• Leads the Villa Council, a group of supporters of the Villa, facilitating donations and appropriate loans to the collection
• Collaborates with the Department of Development on securing sponsors for exhibitions and associated programming
• Collaborates with Education, Publications, and other Museum and Getty departments to ensure public accessibility of the collections at the museum, in print, and online
• Administers the departmental operating budget of $1.1M

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $185,000 to $205,000 with a generous benefits package, including:

• Medical, Dental and Vision insurance coverage, starting on date of hire. Getty pays 75%-95% of the premium, depending on the plan selected.
• 403(b) Employee Investment retirement plan – with up to 5% Getty Match
• Getty contribution of 6%, on behalf of employee, to 401(a) retirement account
• Educational Assistance and professional development• Paid Vacation, Sick and Personal Days
• 12 Paid Holidays
• This position will have bi-weekly Off-Fridays
• On-Site Fitness Center at Getty Center
• Community service opportunities

To learn more about our comprehensive benefits, go to .

Getty believes diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion are essential to our excellence and to the execution of our mission. The Getty community values differences in the pursuit of inquiry and knowledge, mutual understanding, respect, trust, transparency, and cooperation. We are committed to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve and includes individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Individuals of color, women, LGBTQIA+, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Contact

Koya Partners, the executive search firm that specializes in mission-driven search, has been exclusively retained for this engagement. Naree W.S. Viner and Tenley Bank of Koya Partners will lead the search. To express interest in this role please submit your materials or email Tenley Bank directly at . All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential.

Koya Partners is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email . If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.