Ever wonder what graces the walls of the world’s billionaires? Spoiler alert: it’s not elegant work from designer furniture stores. Art collecting is half impulse, half status, and half power play for billionaires. Their collections contain strange masterpieces, cutting-edge modern works, and whole school movements — typically behind closed doors or hand-crafted galleries.

Let’s take a tour of the world’s most stunning private art collections.

François Pinault – The Fashion Tycoon with a Museum

His rival, French billionaire businessman and owner of a stake in Gucci and Balenciaga, luxury titans, François Pinault, owns more than 10,000 works of art in his collection — part of the largest privately held collections in the world. His is a mixed collection of ancient to the downright newest modern works by artists like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, and Mark Rothko. Pinault was so committed to donating his collection that he refurbished the historic Parisian Bourse de Commerce into a museum just to put it in. Imagine being that into art that you just go and construct your own museum in the heart of Paris. Billionaire flex at its best.

David Geffen – The Deal-Making Art Dealer

Hollywood titan and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen handles art like others handle blue-chip stocks — but with more hues. He has possessed some of the most sought-after postwar American art, such as works by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Jasper Johns. In 2016, Geffen was making news selling a de Kooning and a Pollock as a pair for $500 million to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin (below). That sale in itself was among the largest private art transactions ever.

Ken Griffin – Art on the 79th Floor

And when it comes to Ken Griffin, the Citadel founder has been collecting an art empire in stealth. Among his purchases are Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Boy and Dog in a Johnny pump” for over $100 million and Willem de Kooning’s “Interchange,” which he acquired for a record $300 million. Griffin doesn’t just store them. He’s lent his work to the world’s greatest museums and even displays some of it in his New York skyscraper office building — why not greet a Pollock at your breakfast meeting?

Oprah Winfrey – Queen of Taste

Yes, even Oprah is part of the billionaire collector’s club. She used to own Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II,” buying it for a reported $87.9 million and later selling it for $150 million. Talk about taste and timing. Her own collection isn’t as well publicized, but is reportedly made up of traditional and contemporary art, with a focus on African-American and women artists.

Steven A. Cohen – From Hedge Funds to Hirst

The billionaire investor and owner of the New York Mets, Steve Cohen, has an eye for the avant-garde. His collection boasts iconic works by Damien Hirst (yes, including animals in formaldehyde), Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso. In 2015, Cohen dropped $141 million on Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Man Pointing” — showing he’s not afraid to go big, even in the 3D art world.

Why Billionaires Love Art

Yes, it’s an investment. Art does not depreciate and can be sold quietly without stock market madness. But above all that, it’s emotional. Its status. It’s a means of influencing culture, preserving history, and (let’s face it) decorating their boardrooms or mansions.

Whether they’re on a single wall in a gallery in Geneva or temporarily on loan at the Louvre, these collections give us a glimpse of the minds — and hearts — of the ultra-rich.

And who knows? That Basquiat you spotted on Instagram last week could be sprawling expansively in some billionaire playboy’s den.