Bill Gates set what was then an American art record when he bought Winslow Homer's "Lost on the Grand Banks" for $36 million in 1998. The painting hangs on a wall outside his home library.

He also owns a painting by George Bellows called "Polo Crowd." Gates bought the piece anonymously at a Sotheby's auction in 1999, paying a whopping $27.5 million to add it to his collection.