When Aileen Getty first saw video last week of two women pouring tomato soup on a Vincent Van Gogh painting at the National Gallery in London, she was shocked. How desperate must these people be, she thought, to destroy a painting of this caliber? This is how she describes it in a guest post in the Londoner Guardians. She was relieved when she found out that the picture was protected by a pane of glass and was not damaged. At least indirectly, Getty supports the activists responsible for the London incident from “Just Stop Oil” with money.
Aileen Getty is the granddaughter of Jean Paul Getty, who made his fortune in the oil business. For many years, 65-year-old Getty has used part of her heritage to help fight climate change. The one she co-founded Climate Emergency Fund supports various organizations, including Just Stop Oil and the German group Last Generation, which attracted attention over the weekend by splashing mashed potatoes on a painting by Claude Monet in a museum in Potsdam. This picture was also protected by a pane of glass.
Getty approves of the actions
In her contribution in Guardians Getty explains that she has no influence on the actions of the groups, but approves of them. She said: “I believe the climate crisis has reached a point where we need to disruptive maneuvers to achieve a course change on a planet that is becoming increasingly uninhabitable.” She hopes the actions will be seen for what they are: a wake-up call that will focus us on the real emergency, which is the destruction of the planet.
Aileen Getty is the second child of Gail and Jean Paul Getty II. One of her brothers, Jean Paul Getty III, was kidnapped in Rome in 1973 and was only released five months later because his grandfather initially refused to pay the ransom . He only gave out the money after the kidnappers had given him his grandson’s severed ear.
The parents divorced, Aileen Getty grew up in Italy with her mother and was later sent to a boarding school in England. There she constantly rebelled against the strict rules. She dropped out of college at the University of Southern California and devoted herself to sex and drugs for a while. In the early 1980s she met Christopher Wilding, son of world-famous actress Elizabeth Taylor.
A statement from doctors became the turning point
The two married, they had two sons, Andrew and Caleb, but the marriage failed. Getty has had a few breakdowns, going through several rehabs. In the mid-1980s she was diagnosed as HIV positive, and a few years later she contracted AIDS. During these phases, she was supported by her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Taylor, who was dedicated to fighting AIDS. Doctors said she would only live a few months. That was the turning point in her life.
She overcame her drug and alcohol addiction. Originally, Wilding was given sole custody of the children, but the two became close again and shared custody. Getty began to dedicate herself to the fight against climate change, she is also involved in animal welfare and supports neighborhood projects that help the homeless, for example.
So some of the money that Jean Paul Getty, once the richest man on the planet, made from oil is now being used by his granddaughter to help, among other things, end the use of fossil fuels on this very planet. It’s a remarkable turn, and it means, in the least, that Aileen Getty has found her place in the world as a philanthropist.