Getty, J. Paul (
b Minneapolis, 15 Dec. 1892;
d Sutton Place, nr. Guildford, Surrey, 6 June 1976). American oil magnate and art collector. Reputedly the richest man in the world, he amassed a large collection of works of art, his main areas of interest being, as he wrote in his book
The Joys of Collecting (1966), ‘Greek and Roman marbles and bronzes; Renaissance paintings; sixteenth-century Persian carpets; Savonnerie carpets and eighteenth-century French furniture and tapestries’. The J. Paul Getty Museum was opened in 1954 in a wing of his home in Malibu, Los Angeles, and in 1974 a new museum, housed in a re-creation of a Roman villa, was opened nearby. One of the archetypes of the eccentric, parsimonious millionaire, Getty lived in England from the 1950s and never saw his creation. On his death it became the most richly endowed museum in the world, and has become famous for its spectacular purchases (see
Lysippus), which have aroused fears that it would monopolize the world market for masterpieces. In 1997 a second Getty Museum opened at Brentwood, Los Angeles; this now houses all the collections other than antiquities, which remain at Malibu. The new museum is part of the enormous Getty Center, which includes various facilities for art research and education.
Sir Paul Getty (1932–2003), one of Getty's five sons by his five wives, spent much of his life in England (he adopted British nationality in 1988) and was a princely benefactor to British art institutions; most notably he gave £50,000,000 to the National Gallery, London, in 1985.
