How Mark Getty became one of Britain's richest men (2024)

As the most brutal chapter in their lives is shown in cinemas, Sam Masters explores the Getty dynasty’s extraordinary world

For many years, he was known in Siena simply as “Marchetti”. Few onlookers back then would have guessed that the young man with a shock of sandy red hair, drawn to the Palio horse race around the Piazza del Campo each year, would eventually lead a family known throughout the world.

If the Getty dynasty, founded on the unimaginable wealth accrued by oil baron John Paul Getty, has its roots in the oilfields of Oklahoma and latterly the country houses of Britain, Italy may represent the beating heart of the clan.

The story of the Gettys is one of profound contradictions, a story of avarice and altruism, of triumph and tragedy in equal measure. It is the subject of a new Ridley Scott film, All the Money in the World, released on 5 January with Kevin Spacey now replaced by Christopher Plummer in the role of John Paul Getty.

The film, which has been tipped for awards, sheds new light on the childhood of Mark Getty – one of Britain’s richest, and most private, men.

Mark – played in the film by eight-year-old Kit Cranston – grew up in Italy, where his father, Sir Paul Getty, son of John Paul, ran a division of the family business while married to water polo champion Gail Harris. Mark’s parents divorced in 1964.

Gail bought a country house in the hills behind Orgia, a village outside Siena. Mark and his three siblings would travel to the property from Rome on weekends.

Primitive and remote, with little in the way of conveniences, the family’s existence in Orgia was idyllic. In a 2015 interview, Mark remembered playing in the woods, swimming in rivers, riding on hay carts and helping to bring in the cattle at night.

In 1973, when Mark was 13, his older brother John Paul III was kidnapped by Calabrian gangsters.

He was taken to a cave and chained to a stake. The kidnappers sent a ransom note to Gail, who contacted the police, but nobody believed the story. Most assumed Paul had concocted the plot to extort money from his grandfather, John Paul, who famously said: “I don’t believe in paying kidnappers. I have 14 grandchildren and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.”

In response, the kidnappers cut off the teenager’s right ear.

John Paul, then living in Sutton Place, a vast Tudor manor house near Guildford, filled with Rembrandts and Canalettos, grudgingly agreed to pay some of the $3m ransom. He then lent his son the rest, to be repaid with interest.

Following his release, John Paul III never fully recovered from his ordeal, marrying the German actress Martine Zacher two years later. The couple had a son, the Hollywood actor Balthazar Getty.

Haunted by his experience, John Paul III had a stroke, brought on by drink and drug addiction, and was left blind, quadriplegic and unable to speak. He died in 2011, aged 54.

His grandfather spent his last years at Sutton Place, reportedly surrounded by a “harem of mistresses”. One, Lady Ursula d’Abo, sister of the Duke of Rutland, told the National Enquirer in 1973: “Paul is fascinated by English aristocratic ladies. He seems to get a kick out of having a real-life countess cook for him.”

‘How to be Rich’ – tips from J Paul Getty’s book

“There are no sure-fire, quick and easy formulas for success in business, there are no ways in which a man can automatically become a millionaire.”

“There are no tricks, no magical incantations or potions, which can make a business an overnight success. Many qualities and much hard work are needed.”

“Every business executive is going to make mistakes in his career. The important thing is to learn from them and avoid repetition.”

“No successful businessman has ever made his fortune without the help of employees. No psychological weapon is more potent than example. An executive who seeks to achieve results through the people who work under his direction must himself demonstrate at least as high a standard of performance as he hopes to get from his subordinates. If he makes a habit of spending three hours over lunch, he has no right to complain when his secretary dawdles an extra 10 minutes over her coffee break.”

“In dealing with employees, it is essential they be given recognition as human beings, as individuals. Unquestionably, financial reward is the principal motivation that causes people to work. However, this is not the sole motivation. For the majority of people, work satisfies a distinct psychological need.”

The trailer for ‘All the Money in the World’:

After his death, in 1976, the Getty fortune largely passed to the new J Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California. In 1984, the family oil interests were sold to Texaco for £18bn.

That year, Sir Paul, a philanthropist who donated £50m to the National Gallery, developed depression. Margaret Thatcher, who recommended his knighthood, is believed to have eventually encouraged Sir Paul to check out of a clinic. “Now, Mr Getty. What’s the matter? We really must get you out of here,” she said.

In 1994, Sir Paul married his long-term companion, Victoria Holdsworth, and retired to Wormsley, a 2,500-acre estate in the Chiltern Hills. Introduced to cricket by Mick Jagger, Sir Paul installed a replica of The Oval cricket ground at Wormsley and built a castle to house his collection of books, including Chaucer manuscripts and Shakespeare first folios. He died in 2003.

Today, the family’s combined fortunes are somewhat diminished, estimated by Forbes to be around£3.8bn.

Upon Sir Paul’s death in 2003, most of his fortune was left to Mark, a man of relatively modest tastes by comparison.

After graduating from Oxford University, he married Domitilla Harding, aged 22. In 1985, they bought an abandoned village in the mountains near Orgia and began to restore its buildings, one house at a time. Together, they have three children.

In 1993, Mark launched a new project with a £20m investment, backed by three-quarters of the family – his father, two uncles and 13 of 18 cousins. Called Getty Images, the company he co-founded would become the world’s biggest picture agency by buying image libraries around the world.

For Mark, there was little difference in what he was doing to what his grandfather had done in the oilfields of Oklahoma. “Intellectual property,” he told The Economist in 2000, “is the oil of the 21st century. Look at the richest men a hundred years ago: they all made their money extracting natural resources or moving them around. All today’s richest men have made their money out of intellectual property.”

Getty Images was acquired by the Carlyle Group in 2012 for £2.5bn. Again, a Getty had succeeded. Mark Getty would become chairman of the National Gallery and was in 2016 awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen. His wealth is estimated at around £300m.

“I was raised in Italy for the early part of my life, in a relatively small village near Siena, and everyone worked there, from the day that they could walk to the day that they died, so I didn’t really see that I was particularly different,” he told The Daily Telegraph in 2011.

“Most people, if they have an opportunity to do little, will do just that, particularly if you’re born into money. I could have easily done nothing, but it would have been boring and unfulfilling. You only live once, and I never wanted to live in anyone else’s shadow.

“If we were guaranteed that we lived many times, then I’d probably accept it, but, of course, I know it’s just the once.”

‘All the Money in the World’ is released in cinemas on Friday 5 January 2018