March 22, 2014

This story originally appeared on Business Insider



Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison is no stranger to the real estate market — he's been called "the nation's most avid trophy-home buyer" and has all but taken over entire neighborhoods in Malibu and the Lake Tahoe area.

When asked by CNBC in 2012 why he would buy more homes than he could possibly live in, Ellison referenced his love of art.

"My favorite museums are things like the Frick Museum in New York and the Huntington Hartford in Pasadena where it's someone's home that you walk through," Ellison said to CNBC. "So I'm going to start these art museums that are basically converted homes, and I have one for modern art, and I have one for 19th century European art, and one for French impressionism. I've got Japanese. I own a home in Kyoto, Japan actually on the temple on grounds in Nanzenji that is going to become a Japanese art museum. So, a lot of them are museums."

Ellison has made headlines in recent years for his plans to develop Lanai, a Hawaiian island he purchased in 2012, into a model for environmentally sound living. Though Lanai has been his largest overall investment by far, he's made a number of blockbuster purchases over the last two decades.