ALS to his mother, Mrs. George F. Getty

Berne, Switzerland, 1932. Berne, Switzerland: July 15, 1932].

Single stationary sheet, folded to make four pages. Letter written in blue ink on three pages.

(7 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches; 185 x 265 mm). On stationary from Bellevue Palace & Bernerhof Hotel in Bern. Signed "Paul". With envelope addressed to "Mrs. George F. Getty/647 South Kingsley Drive/Los Angeles, Cal./USA" postmarked 15-Dic.32 in Mexico, D.F. From the Hotel Ritz, Mexico D.F. With light crease fold marks. Overall very good.

"July 15, 1932. Dearest mama, As you see I am among the yodeling Swiss. I drove down from Paris the other day and expect to stay in Switzerland (truncated) a week or two. I have been so anxious to get a letter from you. It has been quite a little while since you wrote. I told you about meeting June in Paris in June. She is just fine, has a lovely suite of two big rooms in the Mirabeau hotel and is just radiating health and prosperity. Quite a contrast from most people these days. I hope Georgie had a nice birthday. I was going to send him a wire but heard he was in Alaska. It must be hard on you to have both your boys away from home. From the reports I get business is going fine and our companies are in a strong position. Well darling I wish you were here. Your son, Paul."

This letter is written to his mother two years after the death of his father which lead to him becoming the president of his father's oil company, Getty Oil Company. "Throughout the 1920s, J. Paul Getty and his father continued to amass wealth through drilling and lease brokering. When George passed away in 1930, J. Paul received a $500,000 inheritance and became president of his father's oil company, though his mother retained the controlling interest. In his new position, Getty set out to restructure and expand the company into a self-sufficient business—one that did everything from drilling to refining to transporting and selling oil. He began buying and taking control of other companies, including Pacific Western Oil, Skelly Oil and Tidewater Oil. Following World War II, Getty also took a risk by investing millions in the "Neutral Zone" between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. His gamble paid off in 1953, when oil was struck and began to flow at a rate of 16 million barrels a year. In 1957, Fortune magazine named Getty the richest man in the world. Ten years later he consolidated his business interests into the Getty Oil Company, and by the mid-1970s, it was estimated he had built a personal fortune of $2 to $4 billion... Having made his first art purchases as a teenager, J. Paul Getty established a significant collection by the 1930s. He began donating part of the collection to the Los Angeles Museum of Art by the late 1940s, and established the J. Paul Getty Museum Trust in 1953. The following year, the J. Paul Getty Museum opened at his ranch house in Malibu (later part of Pacific Palisades), California. He later developed a replica of a Roman villa on the property, where he reestablished the museum in 1974... Upon his death, Getty bequeathed $1.2 billion to his charitable trust. The J. Paul Getty Trust, which oversees the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Conservation Institute, set about expanding the museum and its contributions to the art world. In 1997, it unveiled the Getty Center complex overlooking Los Angeles." (Biography dot com).

HBS 68023.

$3,000. (Inventory #: 68023)