Getty family (Subject)

I visited the Getty Villa at Malibu and the Getty Centre in LA . These extraordinary museums filled with treasures and art works to excite and thrill some 38 years after the death of the man who financed it all and whose posthumous trusts are his legacy, set me on a trail to find out about the man who was behind the Getty fortune and the Getty collection. This biography by a journalist , Russell Miller was published in 1985 and has dated somewhat, even though John Paul Getty died in 1972. He was clearly a complex man - a very sharp and clever oil man, a miserly billionaire, a scholar and knowledgeable in the arts, an absent and distant father to five sons and a remote husband. He lived the life he chose though his amoral approach to women and his lack of scruple in his business dealings made him a man whose friendship was sought by beautiful gold digging women. I found it strange that this man with exquisite taste in the arts but little thought to the context of looted treasures and the trade , could have assembled the impressive collection one sees in Malibu and yet he himself never returned to California to live among his treasures. Whether it was women or works of art or a business acquisition it seems that the pleasure was in the chase and the acquisition. The style of the book is slightly sensational and prurient . There are no footnotes and no source reference, so one is grateful for the family tree and the index. This author who does not know the difference between "disinterest" and "uninterested" and should go back to school. This books is not a serious business history but gives one a popular level framework around this rather unpleasant billionaire's life, lifestyle and complicated family. Was he ever truly loved ? I doubt it and it was his misfortune to be the son of his own parents.... and perhaps the psychological angle that here was a man who missed out on love and used all sorts of other activities and pursuits as a substitute. I need to find a better biography. ( )

It was J. Paul Getty III who once proclaimed: "Pity the rich. In terms of living, they are beggars." These words from the grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty ring true in this engrossing biography. Granted, it's a bit heavy on Getty's bedroom escapades, and perhaps a bit too light on his boardroom pursuits. Still, journalist Miller effectively chronicles the toll that wealth can take on a family. One especially strong section involves the 1973 kidnapping of Getty's 16-year-old grandson. Miller skillfully takes us behind the crime scheme where the boy waited in terror as his family bargained with the kidnappers. ( )