In the art world’s latest development, Christie’s auction house announced Thursday that it will sell the impressive art collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who died in 2018. The trove, which includes masterpieces by Renoir and Roy Lichtenstein, is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.
The sale of more than 150 artifacts spanning 500 years, taking place on an undetermined date in November, will be the largest in auction history. Christie’s said it would devote all proceeds to philanthropy, as directed by Allen.
“This is a major event for the art market and the art world,” Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti said in a telephone interview. “The fact that it embraces the great art of five centuries – from Botticelli to David Hockney, as well as certainly the very inspirational figure of Paul Allen, as well as the fact that the sale is dedicated to philanthropy – we really Inspired by this extraordinary project that we are at. It is something that is very special.”
Despite the economic fallout from the pandemic, a foreign war, and rising inflation, the art market continues to thrive, proving – as it always seems – that the wealthiest collectors are largely untouched by the world’s turmoil. According to the annual survey published by Art Basel and UBS, the market generated $65.1 billion in 2021.
In May, Andy Warhol’s 1964 silk-screen of Marilyn Monroe’s face, “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”, sold at Christie’s in New York to an undisclosed buyer for approximately $195 million, making it one of the best American works of art at auction. became the highest price ever achieved for ,
Earlier this year, a second cache of modern and contemporary works owned by real estate magnate Harry McLove and his ex-wife Linda McLove helped Sotheby’s secure a record sale of $922 million for a private collection of art at auction .
In 2018, the treasures of David and Peggy Rockefeller set a high of $833 million for the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction, surpassing the total of $443 million for the Yves Saint Laurent collection in 2009 (revised in 2013) .
Among the highlights of Allen Estate’s works for sale are Jasper Johns’s acrylic and paper collage from 1960’s “Small False Start”, estimated at more than $50 million, and Paul Cézanne’s “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” ( 1888-90), an estimated over $100 million. But there are many old gurus too. Other details of exactly what functions would be offered were not available.
“It’s an extremely focused vision,” said Alex Rotter, president of Christie’s departments specializing in the sale of 20th- and 21st-century art, of Allen’s collection. “Landscape and figure are definitely key.”
Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates, caught the art bug after becoming fascinated by JMW Turner’s romantic sea scenes and Lichtenstein’s pop paintings on a visit to the Tate Britain in London.
He pursued his interest in the visual arts with the same passion in music; In 2000, Allen founded the Experience Music Project—now the Museum of Pop Culture—where he displayed items such as guitars owned by Jimi Hendrix in a Frank Gehry-designed Seattle building.
Allen gave artifacts to major museums and galleries, including shows containing his personal assets. In 2016, the exhibition “Seeing Nature,” organized by the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, included pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, and Gustav Klimt. Among the highlights were Jan Brueghel the Younger’s 17th-century allegorical painting of the five senses.
“It’s really amazing to be living with these pieces of art,” Allen told Bloomberg in 2015. “I think you should share some of the works to give the public a chance to see them.”
“Double Take: From Monet to Lichtenstein,” presented in 2006 at his Pop Culture Museum, combines Impressionist works with Old Masters, modern and contemporary pieces. Van Gogh’s 1888 “Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom” was paired with Max Ernst’s 1940’s “Landscape with Lakes and Chimeras”; A Willem de Kooning 1975 untitled abstract coincides with Monet’s 1919 “Water Lilies”.
Allen also considered art an important investment. According to Bloomberg, at Christie’s in 2016, he was the anonymous buyer of a haystack of Monet’s 1891 canvas for $81.4 million, then an auction record.
In the same year, he sold a painting of an American fighter jet screaming into the sky by Gerhard Richter for $25.6 million, which he had paid $11.2 million a decade earlier, and in 2014, he sold a Mark Rothko painting for $56.2 million . For which he paid $34.2 million in 2007.
Allen made a point of bringing the culture to Seattle, partly in an effort to bring the arts to more people. He started the Seattle Art Fair at the city’s football stadium, home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, also owned by Allen. His investment company, Vulcan, also commissioned public art projects in the city and supported local artists.
“Paul truly understood the power and importance of art and was always happy to share that experience with others,” Jody Allen, executor of the Paul G. Allen Estate, said in a statement. “I am delighted to have this unique collection in the hands of Christie’s world-class operation to lead the safe path for new collectors around the world.”
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)