As the Met is damaged by the economy, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art goes through a whole slew of financial troubles, and more local museums than we can count have their own difficulties staying open, it was no surprise to learn that another big educational establishment would fall prey to these dire times. This time around it’s the Getty Museum/Center in Los Angeles, the Getty Villa in Malibu, and the entire Getty Trust behind them both, which has revealed that its portfolio has dropped a full 25%, losing “$1.5 since July and nearly $2 billion since mid-2007″ along the way and will therefore be forced to scale back its budget by a considerable amount. Although, somewhat different from many of their counterparts, attendance has been up at both locations, the damage done to the financial back end is to quickly result in cuts to temporary exhibits, though not staff layoffs yet — although employees probably aren’t particularly at ease right now:

[Trust president James Wood said it was an “absolute priority” to keep staffers who have special expertise, including curators, researchers, art conservators and even the gardeners who tend the spectacular grounds at the Getty Center and the Villa. But in a December memo about the investment losses, he warned employees that staff cuts were coming.