He married five times, eventually concluding: "A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure."

With his fourth wife, Getty had a son, John Paul jnr, whose first job, to prove himself to his father, was pumping petrol for $100 a month. After marrying a former waterpolo champion, he adopted a more hedonistic lifestyle and his second wife died of a heroin overdose in 1971.

In 1973, John Paul jnr was working in Rome as head of Getty Oil Italiana when his son, John Paul III, then 16, was abducted. The kidnappers demanded a $3m ransom. The family, assuming it was simply an attempt by the wayward teenager to extort money from his wealthy grandfather, refused the demand.

The kidnappers cut off the boy's ear and sent it to them, threatening to send the rest of him in little pieces by installments. The family paid up. Jean Paul III was permanently affected by the trauma and became addicted to drugs and alcohol, which ultimately rendered him blind and paralysed. John Paul jnr's other child, his daughter, Aileen, contracted Aids.

But John Paul jnr himself managed to kick his drug addiction after moving to London for treatment. He became a British citizen and was knighted.

He was introduced to cricket by Mick Jagger and bought the Wisden almanack, as well as building a replica of The Oval at his estate in Buckinghamshire. He later became a significant philanthropist, donating 210m to the arts, including 75m to the British National Gallery. He also contributed to the fund to keep Raphael's 'The Madonna of the Pinks' in the UK when his father's Getty Museum tried to export it to California.

John Paul Getty jnr died from a chest infection in 2003, aged 69.