LOS ANGELES -The new director of the J. Paul Getty Museum hopes to infuse an institution wracked by recent controversy with a modern and worldly zeal.

“The Getty is a contemporary museum of ancient art, in some ways,” says Michael Brand, who was named yesterday to head the museum.

An expert in Indian art and architecture, Mr. Brand supports the broader inclusion of contemporary artists such as video virtuoso Bill Viola, who exhibited at the Getty in 2003.

“I think it’s important that a museum which exhibits pre-modern art doesn’t lose its link to contemporary art,” said Mr. Brand, who is currently director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “The Getty has been collecting Greek and Roman art, but I hope to bring a network of other links throughout the world.”

The 47-year-old native of Australia begins his new position full-time in January.

Mr. Brand succeeds former director Deborah Gribbon, who resigned in October because of clashes with the president and chief executive of the Getty Trust, Barry Munitz.

Munitz himself is at the center of a state probe into the nonprofit museum’s financial practices. Antiquities curator Marion True faces charges in Italy that she conspired to buy looted antiquities for the Getty.

“I read the newspaper stories. I have spoken at length with Barry, with the trustees,” Mr. Brand said of the controversy.

“I come here to the Getty very enthusiastic and optimistic. I don’t come here thinking that this is a museum needing radical change,” he said.

As the VMFA’s director, Mr. Brand spurred a highly successful campaign that raised $158 million toward the museum’s expansion.

Before taking the position in 2000, he headed museums and galleries in Australia, Pakistan, and Rhode Island. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has used several languages, including French, Italian, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, and Sanskrit, in his research.

In a statement released yesterday, Mr. Munitz praised Mr. Brand as a dynamic leader and “strategic thinker” who will “be a strong colleague with all the trust’s activities.”

Mr. Brand, a soft-spoken father to two pre-teen daughters, emphasized that he views the museum not only as a leading center of research, but also as a place to bring family.

“I want to build links with the community here in Los Angeles,” Mr. Brand said. “I think the trustees wanted someone broad in their thinking and creative, and scholarly as well as approachable.”