J. Paul Getty - Wikipedia

Jean Paul Getty (/ˈɡɛti/; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976), known widely as J. Paul Getty, was a British American petrol-industrialist,[2] and the patriarch of the Getty family. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American,[3] while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $9.07 billion in 2017).[4] At his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $25.85 billion in 2017).[5] A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th richest American who ever lived, based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product.[6]

Despite his vast wealth, Getty was famously frugal, notably negotiating his grandson's Italian kidnapping ransom in 1973.

Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities; his collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, and over $661 million (approximately $2.8 billion in 2017) of his estate was left to the museum after his death.[5] He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, and operates the J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes: The Getty Center, The Getty Villa and the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.[7]