Records include correspondence, memoranda, letters, agenda, minutes, reports, financial documents, legal documents, photographs, and maps related to J. Paul Getty and his art and real estate holding companies (Art Properties, Inc.; Fine Arts Corporation; Gaiola Corporation), 1939, 1960-1982 and undated. The records provide a detailed legal and financial view of the activities of these holding companies during the last decades of Getty's life and the years immediately after his death.

American oil tycoon and art collector Jean Paul Getty was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 15, 1892 to George Franklin Getty (1855-1930) and Sarah Catherine McPherson Risher Getty. Around 1906 the Getty family moved to Los Angeles. Jean Paul, called "Paul," attended a private military school before going on to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1911, Paul went to Oxford to study economics and political science, completing his diploma in 1913. Afterwards he embarked on a year-long Grand Tour of Europe, which no doubt sparked his interest in art and antiquities.

12.3 Linear Feet (24 boxes, 1 flat file)

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The records in accession 1986.IA.11 are closed to all except the department that created them, the General Counsel, the director of the originating program or division, or their designees until 2012.