Alfred did not go into business, but instead became an art collecting.

Little about art collecting as a competitive high stakes game may be new.

It doesn't have to come just through art collecting.

Many financial experts disapprove of mixing leverage with art collecting, however.

Journalists occasionally had more success, however, coaxing him to talk about art collecting.

He retired from his business in 1919 to devote more time to art collecting.

"It's got to be something that hits me," he said of his art collecting.

"My art collecting life had a 20-year span," she said.

He wished he, too, had time to devote to art collecting.

Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796, turned art collecting into international policy.