Getty Business

I was interested by Scott Schaefer’s reference to the recently sold Berggruen Cezanne as “a B-level painting” in Suzanne Muchnic’s article about his purchase of a Monet for the Getty Museum (“A High ‘Light’ for the Getty,” July 9).

If I remember my art history studies and some of the reading I have done since then, Monet has always been considered the lightweight of the Impressionists--especially when compared to Cezanne. I would be interested to learn the letter grades Schaefer would give to LACMA’s Van Dyck and Titian, which he purchased. He was fortunate to have the experience of buying lesser pictures at LACMA in order to sharpen his grading skills.

RONALD L. WINOKUR

Los Angeles

*

Ten years ago the Getty was severely criticized for fueling spiraling art auction price inflation. Now it is getting flak for not spending enough on painting acquisitions. Arguing both sides of the coin simultaneously seems self-serving. I was not a supporter of the Getty when it set out to build the sandstone-colored palace high above the 405 in Brentwood. I have since been won over.

Getty-bashing is nothing more than a case of Napoleon complex.

STEVEN DORNBUSCH

Los Angeles