John Paul Getty III selling Irish home

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John Paul Getty III

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American billionaire John Paul Getty III has just put his Irish hideaway on the market. The property is a 100-acre estate on the shores of Lough Derg in County Tipperary, which he bought in 1998 for around $2 million.

Gurthalougha House, a Victorian lodge on 100 acres on the shores of Lough Derg, is located just a short boat ride away from Terryglass and Getty and his mother Gail Harris Getty have lived there off and on over the last 12 years. However, now they have put the property on the market priced at €5.2 million. The agent is Knight Frank.

Getty, who is 53 and wheelchair bound, divides his time between the U.K. and Italy. His mother, who was responsible for renovating Gurthalougha and its grounds, still visits the property regularly but has now begun to move the bulk of the furniture and paintings to the family’s other homes in the U.S. and Europe.

Getty is the grandson of John Paul Getty, the American industrialist who founded Getty Oil and was once declared America’s richest man – the man who at one time famously installed a coin-operated telephone in his New York mansion.

As a teenager John Paul Getty III was kidnapped by Sicilian bandits in the 1970's. When his grandfather refused to pay the $17 million ransom, a further demand arrived with an envelope containing the 16-year-old’s ear. A ransom was paid and John Paul was restored to his family, but he later became a drug addict and was paralysed by an overdose in 1981.

Gurthalougha House is used as a year-round retreat for family and friends. The house has 12 bedrooms with extra space in a two-bedroom cottage that overlooks a fully-stocked walled garden. A total of four indoor and four outdoor staff are employed to keep the house while guests are in residence.
 

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