Editing J. Paul Getty (section)

==Career==
[[File:Oklahoma Oil Corp. 1922.jpg|thumb|Share of the Oklahoma Oil Corp., issued on July 15, 1922, signed by President J. Paul Getty]]
In the autumn of 1914, George Getty gave his son $10,000 ({{inflation|US|10000|1914|fmt=eq|r=-4}}) to invest in expanding the family's oil field holdings in Oklahoma. The first lot he bought, the Nancy Taylor No. 1 Oil Well Site near [[Haskell, Oklahoma]], was crucial to his early financial success. The well struck oil in August 1915 and by the next summer the 40 percent net production royalty he accrued from it had made him a millionaire.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=34}}

In 1919, Getty returned to business in Oklahoma. During the 1920s, he added about $3&nbsp;million to his already sizable estate. His succession of marriages and divorces so distressed his father that Getty inherited only $500,000 of the $10&nbsp;million fortune his father left at the time of his death in 1930. Getty was left with one-third of the stock from George Getty Inc., while his mother received the remaining two-thirds, giving her a controlling interest.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=47}} In 1936, Getty's mother convinced him to contribute to the establishment of a $3.3&nbsp;million [[investment trust]], called the Sarah C. Getty Trust, to ensure the family's ever-growing wealth could be channeled into tax-free, secure income for future generations of the Getty family. The trust enabled Getty to have easy access to ready capital, which he was funneling into the purchase of [[Tidewater Petroleum]] stock.<ref name="Pearson1995" />{{rp|pages=63–65}}

During the [[Great Depression]], Getty acquired [[Pacific Western Oil Corporation]] and began the acquisition (completed in 1953) of the Mission Corporation which included [[Tidewater Petroleum|Tidewater Oil]] and [[Skelly Oil]]. In 1967, Getty merged these holdings into Getty Oil.<ref>{{Cite news|title=3 GETTY UNITS SET A SINGLE COMPANY| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/09/21/83140834.html?pageNumber=76|access-date=February 6, 2021|language=en}}</ref> In 1948–49, Getty paid [[Ibn Saud]] $9.5&nbsp;million in cash, guaranteed $1&nbsp;million a year, and a royalty of 55 cents a barrel for the [[Saudi Arabian-Kuwaiti neutral zone|Saudi Arabian Neutral Zone]] concession, which was 2.5 times more than what other major oil companies were paying in the Middle East at the time. Oil was finally discovered in March 1953.<ref name="dy">{{cite book |last1=Yergin |first1=Daniel |title=The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power |date=1991 |publisher=Touchstone |location=New York |isbn=9780671799328 |pages=442–443, 790}}</ref> Since 1953, Getty's gamble produced 16&nbsp;million barrels a year, which contributed greatly to the fortune responsible for making him one of the richest people in the world.

{{Quote box
 |quote     = The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.
 |author    = —a dictum attributed to Jean Paul Getty<ref name="Manser2007">{{cite book|last=Manser|first=Martin H.|title=The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs|url={{Google books|fgaUQc8NbTYC|page=PA186|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|access-date=May 26, 2011|date=April 2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-6673-5|page=186}}</ref>
}}
Getty's wealth and ability to speak Arabic enabled his unparalleled expansion into the Middle East. He owned the controlling interest in about 200 businesses, including Getty Oil. Getty owned [[Getty Oil]], Getty Inc., George F. Getty Inc., [[Pacific Western Oil Corporation]], Mission Corporation, Mission Development Company, [[Tidewater Oil]], [[Skelly Oil]], Mexican Seaboard Oil, Petroleum Corporation of America, [[Spartan Aircraft Company]], Spartan Cafeteria Company, Minnehoma Insurance Company, Minnehoma Financial Company, [[Pierre Hotel]], Pierre Marques Hotel, a 15th-century palace and nearby castle at Ladispoli on the coast northwest of Rome, a Malibu ranch home, and [[Sutton Place, Surrey|Sutton Place]], a 72-room mansion near [[Guildford]], Surrey.<ref>{{cite news|first=Clyde H.|last=Farnsworth|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/30/surrey-estate-seat-of-getty-empire.html|title=Surrey Estate Seat of Getty Empire|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 30, 1964|access-date=March 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330234411/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/30/surrey-estate-seat-of-getty-empire.html|archive-date=March 30, 2018}}</ref>

===Art collection===
Getty's first forays into collecting began in the late 1930s, when he was inspired by the collection of 18th-century French paintings and furniture of the landlord of his New York City penthouse, Amy Guest, a relation of [[Sir Winston Churchill]].<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=72}} A fan of 18th-century France, Getty began buying furniture from the period at reduced prices because of the depressed art market. He wrote several books on collecting, including ''Europe and the 18th Century'' (1949), ''Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe'' (1955) and ''The Joys of Collecting'' (1965). His stinginess limited the range of his collecting because he refused to pay full price. Getty's companion in later life, Penelope Kitson, said, "Paul was really too mean ever to allow himself to buy a great painting."<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|page=84}} Nonetheless, at the time of his death he owned more than 600 works valued at more than $4&nbsp;million, including paintings by [[Rubens]], [[Titian]], [[Thomas Gainsborough|Gainsborough]], [[Renoir]], [[Tintoretto]], [[Degas]], and [[Monet]].<ref name="NYTobit"/> Getty's reluctance to donate any more artworks to [[Los Angeles County]] after he realized how his first donations had been shabbily presented at the [[Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art]] caused [[Edward W. Carter]] to orchestrate the fundraising effort for the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]].<ref name="MargaretLeslieDavis">{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Margaret Leslie|title=The Culture Broker: Franklin D. Murphy and the Transformation of Los Angeles|date=2007|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520925557|page=[https://archive.org/details/culturebrokerfra00davi/page/29 29]|url=https://archive.org/details/culturebrokerfra00davi|url-access=registration|access-date=August 30, 2016}}</ref> During the 1950s, Getty's interests shifted to [[Greco-Roman]] sculpture, which led to the building of the [[Getty Villa]] in the 1970s to house the collection.<ref name="Pearson1995"/>{{rp|pages=86–87}} These items were transferred to the [[Getty Museum]] and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles after his death.