About

Getty is the legacy of the businessman and art collector J. Paul Getty, and his view that art is a civilizing influence in society. Throughout his adult life, he took greater and greater steps to make art available for the public’s education and enjoyment. Starting in 1948, he gave significant pieces from his personal collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 1953, he established the J. Paul Getty Museum Trust. The following year the J. Paul Getty Museum opened in his ranch house in Malibu (today, Pacific Palisades).

Mr. Getty died in 1976, with most of his personal estate passing to the Trust in 1982. Drawing upon the vision Mr. Getty articulated in the Trust Indenture, the Trustees sought to make a greater contribution to the visual arts by expanding the Museum and its collections, and creating a range of new programs to serve the world of art. Reflecting this expanded mission, the Trust’s name was legally changed to the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1983.

Mr. Getty’s philanthropy enabled the construction of the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades and the Getty Center in Brentwood, the expansion of the collections of the Museum, and the creation of the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Foundation. With the Trust, these programs constitute “Getty.”

J. Paul Getty (1892-1976)

Getty’s education in the oil business began as a child, as did his collecting habit. Noncomformist by nature, Getty took calculated risks in both business and art collecting. His desire to increase the public’s access to art would lead him to turn the museum he started in his ranch house into the world’s largest cultural and philanthropic institution dedicated to the visual arts.

Getty Evolves (1976-1984)

J. Paul Getty’s will turned his small namesake museum into the wealthiest art museum in the world. Charged with carrying out Getty’s wishes that the Trust provide for “the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge,” the Board of Trustees embarked on years of research and deliberation to lay the foundation for an institution that aimed to serve all facets of the art world.

Getty Now (1984-present)

To support collaboration among Getty’s programs, the Trust broke ground on a new campus in Brentwood. The original site of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu was renovated to serve a mission focused on antiquities. Presently, Getty continues to support the presentation, conservation, and interpretation of the world’s artistic legacy.

Further Resources

See the installation, J. Paul Getty Life & Legacy, at the Getty Center.

Access the historical records of Getty through the Institutional Archives, including oral histories with Harold Williams and other staff, trustees, and associates.

Read key documents and policies relating to governance of Getty.

View Getty’s diaries (1938-1946, 1948-1976) online.

Books by J. Paul Getty

• History of the Oil Business of George F. and J. Paul Getty 1903-1939. J. Paul Getty, 1941.
• My Life and Fortunes. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1963.
• The Joys of Collecting. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2011. First published by Hawthorn Books, Inc., New York, 1965.
• How to be a Successful Executive. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1971.
• As I See It: The Autobiography of J. Paul Getty. Rev. ed. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2003.
• With Ethel Le Vane. Collector’s Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe. London: W.H. Allen, 1955.

Resources about the Getty

• Froemke, Susan, Bob Eisenhardt, and Albert Maysles. Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center. DVD. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1997.
• Hackman, William, and Mark Greenberg, eds. Inside the Getty. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2008.
• J. Paul Getty Trust. Guide to the Getty Villa. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2005.
• J. Paul Getty Trust. The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collection. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2015.
• Walsh, John and Deborah Gribbon. The J. Paul Getty Museum and Its Collections: A Museum for the New Century. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1997.
• Williams, Harold M., Bill Lacy, Stephen D. Rountree, and Richard Meier. “The Getty Center: Design Process.” 1991.
• Williams, Harold M., Richard Meier, Stephen D. Rountree, and Ada Louise Huxtable. Making Architecture: The Getty Center. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1997.