It goes without saying that over the past few years the Getty Trust was managed like a cookie jar in a household run by five-year-olds. Just when you think nothing else embarrasing could possibly be unearthed, the LA Times gave us this over the weekend:

David Gardner, the former chairman of the board of J. Paul Getty Trust, has returned nearly $100,000 of the money he was paid to write a coffee-table book on the history of the arts institution after he left the board in 2004 but never produced.

The Getty asked Gardner to pay back the money after an internal investigation concluded that the book deal violated tax laws prohibiting excess compensation and self-dealing, Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig said Friday.

Gardner is keeping 78 grand he was paid for the project. To date, he's produced an "outline" but hasn't conducted any interviews.

Which makes this announcement last week even more perplexing:

LOS ANGELES—The Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust today announced it has elected Louise H. Bryson as board chair, replacing John Biggs, who announced earlier that he planned to step down and retire from the board by the end of October.  Ms. Bryson will assume the role of chair immediately.

Ms. Bryson, who is currently one of the board’s three vice chairs, has been a Getty Trustee since April 1998.  She currently heads the ad hoc Search Committee, charged with identifying a new president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust; she served as chair of the Investment and Finance Committee from 2000 to 2003, and since then as chair of the External Affairs Committee.

You'd think The Getty, having become a complete clusterfuck over the past three years, would look to someone outside the organization to chair its board. It's tough letting go of that cookie jar.