Descriptive Summary
Biography
Administrative Information
Related Archival Materials Note
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Art and real estate holding companies records
Date (inclusive): 1939-1982, undated (bulk 1960-1982)
Number: IA20011
Creator/Collector:
Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul), 1892-1976
Physical Description:
12.3 Linear Feet
(24 boxes, 1 flat file)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Institutional Records and Archives
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: 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.
Request Materials: To access physical materials at the Getty, go to the
library catalog record for this collection and click "Request an Item." Click here for
general library access policy . See the Administrative Information section of this finding aid for access restrictions specific to the records described
below. Please note, some of the records may be stored off site; advanced notice is required for access to these materials.
Language: Collection material is in
English
Biography
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.
In 1914 Paul joined the family oil business and spent a year in the oil fields of Oklahoma. An astute investment in 160 acres
near Stone Bluff, Oklahoma led to Paul's announcement two years later that he had earned his first million dollars. He returned
to Los Angeles and took a break of more than a year before returning to the oil business. Paul then persuaded his father
to shift the focus of the family business to the Los Angeles basin. Paul continued to work for the family company in addition
to conducting oil drilling of his own, securing the family fortune by the time the stock market crashed in 1929. Upon his
death in 1930 George left controlling interest in the company to Sarah. In 1934 Paul forced Sarah out of control of the company
and gave her an annuity. His fortune grew as he acquired the controlling interest in several companies and became the head
of a vast organization with activities in oil exploration, transportation, production and marketing, as well as minerals,
manufacturing, real estate and agriculture. In the mid-1940s Getty bought the Saudi Arabian portion of the lease on the mineral
rights in the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait; his wealth dramatically increased when this site produced oil
in 1953.
Beginning in the early 1930s Getty lived in a house he built next to William Randolph Hearst's on the beach in Santa Monica.
During World War II he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma for four years to supervise wartime production of parts for Allied aircraft
at his Spartan Aircraft plant. In 1946 he purchased 64 acres in Malibu, California and renovated the existing hacienda,
known as the Ranch House, where he lived until 1951. When Getty departed the United States for Europe in 1951, he kept his
Malibu estate for the display of his art collection and for the possibility of his eventual return. Getty had been collecting
art since the 1930s. In 1938 he made his first major purchases: a group of furniture; a carpet that had belonged to Louis
XIV, often called "Ardabil Carpet"; and Rembrandt's
Marten Looten (he donated the Ardabil Carpet and the Rembrandt to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1954). His other interest was
antiquities, fueled by visits to the Vatican Museums that began in 1939. He took pride in being knowledgeable in the areas
in which he was collecting and in finding bargains. Getty continued to collect art throughout his lifetime, despite occasional
assertions that he was no longer in the market. By 1968 his art collection had begun to outgrow the Ranch House and he began
planning a new building on the property to properly house these works. He chose to pattern this new museum building after
a first-century Roman country house, based primarily on the plans of the ancient Villa dei Papiri near Herculaneum. This
museum, often called the Villa, opened to the public on January 16, 1974.
After leaving the United States Getty lived in hotel suites in Europe until 1960 when he moved to Sutton Place, a historic
72-room Tudor manor located 25 miles southwest of London. In 1957
Fortune magazine designated Getty as the world's wealthiest man, and he became the object of considerable public interest. For the
rest of his life, both the respectable press and the tabloids reported on his perceived eccentricities and his private life,
which included five marriages and divorces. J. Paul Getty died in England on June 6, 1976 without ever returning to California
or seeing his own museum. Much to everyone's surprise Getty left the bulk of his fortune to the museum with a mission to
promote "the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge."
J. Paul Getty's publications include:
- Getty, J. Paul.
The history of the oil business of George F. and J. Paul Getty from 1903 to 1939. Los Angeles (?), 1941.
- Getty, J. Paul.
Europe in the eighteenth century. [Santa Monica, Calif.]: privately printed, 1949.
- Le Vane, Ethel, and J. Paul Getty.
Collector's choice: the chronicle of an artistic odyssey through Europe. London: W.H. Allen, 1955.
- Getty, J. Paul.
My life and fortunes. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1963.
- Getty, J. Paul.
The joys of collecting. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1965.
- Getty, J. Paul.
How to be rich. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1965.
- Getty, J. Paul.
The golden age. New York: Trident Press, 1968.
- Getty, J. Paul.
How to be a successful executive. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1971.
- Getty, J. Paul.
As I see it: the autobiography of J. Paul Getty. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1976.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
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.
The records in accession 1986.IA.12 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 2017.
The records in accession 1986.IA.13 and 2009.IA.45, subject to review for permanently closed information, are open to qualified
researchers. Requests for access will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The following types of records are permanently closed: records containing personal information, records that compromise security
or operations, legal communications, legal work product, and records related to donors. The J. Paul Getty Trust reserves the
right to restrict access to any records held by the Institutional Archives.
Restrictions on Use
Preferred Citation
[Cite the item and series (as appropriate)], Art and Real Estate Holding Companies Records, 1939, 1960-1982 and undated, J.
Paul Getty. Institutional Archives, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Finding aid no. IA20011.
Acquisition Information
The records in this collection originated in accessions: 1986.IA.11; 1986.IA.12; 1986.IA.13; and 2009.IA.45.
Processing History
A preliminary inventory was created by Institutional Archives part-time staff prior to 2004; in 2005 Sue Luftschein rehoused
the materials and created this finding aid based, in part, on the preliminary inventory; and in 2009 Cyndi Shein added materials
found during the Legacy Records Appraisal Project and revised the finding aid accordingly.
Related Archival Materials Note
The following materials are offered as possible sources of further information on the people, programs, and subjects covered
by the records. The listing is not exhaustive.
Contributing Institution:
Getty Institutional Archives
J. Paul Getty Family Papers, circa 1880s-1989 and undated. Institutional Records and Archives, Getty Research Institute, Finding
aid no. IA20009.
Financial records, 1953-1981, J. Paul Getty Museum. Institutional Records and Archives, Getty Research Institute, Finding
aid no. IA20022.
J. Paul Getty Diaries, 1938-1946, 1948-1976. Institutional Records and Archives, Getty Research Institute, Finding aid no.
IA40009.
Scope and Content of Collection
Records consist of agenda, minutes, memoranda, correspondence, ledgers, reports, legal documents, contracts, inventories,
invoices, bills of sale, tax returns, financial documents, check receipts and cancelled checks, stock certificates, bank statements,
inventories, maps, and photographs concerning 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 complete legal and financial
view of the activities of these holding companies during the last two decades of Getty's life and the years immediately after
his death.
Art Properties, Inc. was formed in the United States in 1960 in an effort to establish legal ownership of Getty's art collection
by an entity outside of England. Art Properties was liquidated in 1971 and its assets were used to create two new companies,
Fine Arts Corporation (to control art objects) and Gaiola Corporation (to control the Italian real estate Getty began purchasing
in 1966). Why Art Properties was liquidated is not made clear by the records, and the exact relationship between Fine Arts
Corporation and Gaiola Corporation is also not explained in the records; although some of Getty's collection was housed in
the Italian properties, they were legally owned by Fine Arts Corporation.
The records of Art Properties Inc. document meetings of the stockholders, and the incorporation and dissolution of Art Properties,
Inc.; inventories and valuations of Art Properties' holdings during the 1960s and 1970s; and information about financial activities
and tax reporting.
The records of Fine Arts Corporation document shareholder meetings and the liquidation of the corporation. The art object
records describe the removal of objects from Sutton Place (Getty's English estate) and La Posta Vecchia (one of Getty's Italian
properties) either for transfer to the J. Paul Getty Museum or for sale. The financial records consist of tax returns, documents
concerning stock and bank accounts, and correspondence. The insurance records describe coverage for the assets (art objects)
of the corporation.
The Gaiola Corporation records describe the purchase and sale of the Italian properties, their condition, and the day-to-day
legal, administrative and financial activities of the corporation.
Organization
These records are organized in three series:
Series I. Art Properties, Inc., 1939, 1960-1977, undated;
Series II. Fine Arts Corporation, 1969-1982;
Series III. Gaiola Corporation and Italian properties, 1966-1980, undated.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Names
Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul), 1892-1976
Subjects - Topics
Real property -- Italy
Art objects -- Collectors and collecting
Genres and Forms of Material
Articles of incorporation
Minutes
Vital records (document genre)
Reports
Stock books
Letters (correspondence)
Seals (artifacts)
Ledgers (account books)
Memorandums
Financial records
Legal documents
Check stubs
Agendas (administrative records)
Correspondence
Invoices
Photographs
Bylaws
Contributors
Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul), 1892-1976
Gaiola Corporation
Garrett, Stephen
Art Properties, Inc.
Bramlett, Norris (Cagle Norris)
Fine Arts Corporation (J. Paul Getty)