Getty heir dies in Los Angeles: reports

[LOS ANGELES] Andrew Getty, one of the heirs to the Getty oil fortune, has died at the age of 47 in his Los Angeles mansion, news reports said on Wednesday.

At this stage of the investigation foul play is not suspected in the death on Tuesday, police told the Los Angeles Times.

The deceased was a grandson of J. Paul Getty (1892-1976), founder of Getty Oil, who used his wealth to become one of the biggest art collectors of his era.

Andrew Getty was a member of the Getty trust and one of seven heirs to the US$2.1 billion that the magazine Forbes says his family is worth.

His parents, Ann and Gordon, asked for privacy, according to a statement published in the Los Angeles Times.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles county coroner's office said they would release the name of the victim and the cause of death, which so far has not been disclosed, on Wednesday.

Getty was found naked from the waist down in the bathroom of his estate on Tuesday. He seemed to have suffered from some type of blunt-force trauma, the LA Times said, quoting a law enforcement source.

It was unclear whether the injury was caused by a fall or something else, the source told the paper.

Police were questioning a woman who was in the mansion at the time of the death and who reported finding the body.

Getty was one of four sons of Ann and Gordon P Getty, one of J Paul Getty's three sons.

AFP