J. Paul Getty Trivia Questions

His father, George Getty, was a successful oilman and lawyer who left J. Paul a substantial inheritance and an oil business to manage.

The museum opened in his Pacific Palisades ranch house in 1954. In 1974, the collection moved to the Getty Villa in Malibu, a hilltop estate modeled after a Roman villa.

Getty famously refused to pay the ransom, later negotiated a lower amount, and the ransom was paid by his son—after the grandson's ear was mailed.

To cut costs, he locked the phone and required coins, a famous anecdote that epitomizes his legendary frugality.

Despite his museum legacy, Getty was notoriously tight-fisted with charity; his will left most of his fortune to the museum, not broad philanthropy.

Fortune's 1957 list named Getty the wealthiest American, though he famously kept a pay phone in his mansion to save money.

'Irises' was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1990, long after J. Paul Getty's death in 1976, so it never belonged to his personal collection.

Published in 1965, the book offered blunt advice on wealth accumulation and became a surprise bestseller due to his notorious penny-pinching.