MoMA's former leader joins Getty Trust board alongside French collector

The J. Paul Getty Trust—the world's wealthiest art institution with an $8.59 billion endowment—has appointed Glenn D. Lowry and Lionel M. Sauvage to its board of trustees, bringing decades of museum leadership and collecting expertise into its governance.

Lowry, who stepped down as director of New York's Museum of Modern Art in September after 30 years, is the longest-serving leader in MoMA's history. During his tenure, he navigated the institution through two major renovations and a 2019 expansion that grew the building to 708,000 square feet. That expansion came with a deliberate reshuffling of the collection—one that deliberately blurred lines between painting, sculpture, film, dance, and architecture, challenging the traditional compartmentalization that had long defined how museums displayed art.

He also orchestrated the integration of PS1, a contemporary art space housed in a former Long Island City schoolhouse, into MoMA's orbit. Beyond New York, Lowry currently sits on boards and advisory committees spanning the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, and Istanbul's Museum of Modern Art.

Sauvage brings a different kind of institutional weight. The French-American financier and collector has held leadership roles across major cultural organizations—the American Friends of the Louvre, London's Wallace Collection, and currently as chairman of Les Arts Décoratifs, the French nonprofit that oversees the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée Nissim de Camondo, and Ecole Camondo, one of Paris's most respected design schools. A specialist in 18th-century French art, he's loaned works from his personal collection to exhibitions at the Domaine de Chantilly and has been recognized by the French government with both the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and Knight of the Order of Merit.

"Both have a lifelong commitment to the arts, and deep and varied experience," said Katherine E. Fleming, the Getty's president and CEO, in a statement. "Their contributions will benefit Getty in countless ways as we work to transform our visitor experience and expand our global reach."

The appointments signal the Getty's focus on deepening its international profile while drawing on the kind of operational expertise that comes from shepherding major institutions through significant change. As the Getty continues to shape how the world's wealthiest art trust operates, it's leaning on leaders who've already proven they can remake institutions from within.