More than 30 museum leaders from across the U.S., England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, China, and South Africa will explore the increasingly complex challenges that face today’s museums as part of the Getty Leadership Institute’s renowned Museum Leadership Institute (MLI), to be held at the Getty Center July 13–August 1, 2008.

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today the acquisition of a remarkable marble sarcophagus that dates to the third-century A.D. Never before seen by the public, Sarcophagus representing a Dionysiac Vintage Festival joins the Museum’s impressive collection of ancient funerary monuments, which are on view at the Getty Villa.

The evolving practice of antiquities conservation is the focus of The Hope Hygieia: Restoring a Statue’s History, a new exhibition on view through September 8, 2008 at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa.

Two illuminated manuscripts of extraordinary importance, along with books, prints, maps, watercolors, and photographs that illustrate the history and culture of Peru will be on display in The Marvel and Measure of Peru: Three Centuries of Artists’ Histories, 1550–1880, at the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Center, July 8–October 19, 2008.

One of the greatest examples of French medieval manuscript illumination will go on view in its unbound form in the exhibition The Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry. From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the luxurious Book of Hours was commissioned by Jean de France, duc de Berry (1340-1416), in the early 15th century.

Visitors to the elegant J. Paul Getty Museum wouldn’t be surprised to find pastoral scenes of shepherds tending their grazing flocks. But they’d expect them to be painted on canvas and hanging in frames—not wandering the hillside overlooking the 405.

Medieval and Renaissance images of Christ provided visual accounts of the historical Christ described in the Gospels and powerful entry points to prayer. Imagining Christ at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, through July 27, 2008 will display manuscripts from the Getty’s permanent collection that demonstrate the ways in which Christ was understood by the medieval and Renaissance faithful.

The J. Paul Getty Museum has announced the acquisition of Irving Penn’s unique master set, The Small Trades. Initially created in 1950 and 1951 in London, New York, and Paris, The Small Trades consists of 252 full-length portraits of skilled tradespeople in their work clothes and carrying the tools of their respective trades, photographed in natural light against a neutral backdrop.

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced today the acquisition of an exceptional painting by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) that dates to his first extended stay in Tahiti. Arii Matamoe (The Royal End) (1892) joins the Museum’s collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, which includes works by van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Degas, and Renoir.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (NMAH), the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), and the Getty Foundation have teamed up to examine a 156 year-old mystery that remains, to this day, one of the most controversial questions in photography – and their research has revealed some rather surprising results.

Drawn exclusively from the special collections of the Getty Research Institute (GRI), The Magnificent Piranesi, at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa from December 6, 2007-March 10, 2008, focuses on the prolific and expansive printmaking career of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778), providing an introduction into the mind and studio practices of the artist, and demonstrating the broad variety of his talents.

Co-organized by the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Museum, and on view in the J. Paul Getty Museum’s special exhibition pavilion at the Getty Center, March 15 through June 8 2008, California Video highlights the unique sensibilities of West Coast video, while providing the first major survey of video art produced in California.