In his spare time, the hedge fund giant likes to collect artworks and donate them to the arts. Rumor has it that he spent $60 million on Paul Cézanne's oil paintings, but some people say that the real buyer is a member of the Whitney family. June 5438 +2006 10, Griffin spent $80 million to buy the artist jasper johns's work "Wrong Start" from David Geffen, a partner of DreamWorks. In the same year, he also donated190,000 US dollars to the Chicago Art Institute. A painting by Paul Cézanne and a sculpture by Edgar Degas collected by Griffin are exhibited in art institutions all the year round.

In 2004, Griffin and his wife Anne were named as one of the most influential art collectors in the world by art news magazine.