Art collection of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen fetches record $1.4 billion at Christie's

NEW YORK - Paintings and sculptures from the collection of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen were auctioned off for a historic US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) on Wednesday, Christie’s auction house said, with records set for works by van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat and Klimt.

Five paintings entered the exclusive club of works of art sold for more than US$100 million at auction, the New York auction house said, in a sign that the art market continues to grow despite economic uncertainties related to the war in Ukraine and inflation.

The most expensive piece of the evening was Georges Seurat’s 1888 work Les Poseuses, Ensemble (small version). A renowned work of pointillism, it fetched US$149.24 million, including fees, Christie’s said.

The auction house had announced that all the proceeds would be donated to charity.

Wednesday’s auction sold 60 of 150 lots, with the rest to be sold on Thursday.

The value of the collection has already surpassed the record for the Macklowe collection, named after a wealthy New York couple, which fetched US$922 million at competitor Sotheby’s earlier this spring.

Microsoft fortune

Mr Allen made his fortune with the establishment of the PC operating system with his better-known Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1975.

He amassed a huge art collection that he loaned to museums before his death in 2018 at the age of 65.

He had a net worth of US$20.3 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes.

Mr Allen left Microsoft in 1983, due to health problems and a deteriorating relationship with Mr Gates, who remained in charge of the company until 2000.

Mr Allen founded a pop culture museum in his home town of Seattle and owned several sports franchises, including the Seattle Seahawks.

Despite their strained friendship, Mr Allen signed Mr Gates’ Giving Pledge campaign and all proceeds from the auction are to be donated to charitable causes.

Diverse collection

The sale on Wednesday totalled about US$1.5 billion, according to an AFP calculation, and included French painter Paul Cezanne’s La Montagne Sainte-Victoire – which fetched US$137.8 million, almost double the artist’s auction record.

A work by Vincent van Gogh, Orchard With Cypresses, broke the Dutch artist’s previous record, bringing in $117.2 million.

A painting from Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian period, Maternity II, fetched US$105.7 million.

Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s Birch Forest brought in US$104.6 million.

The billion-dollar mark was surpassed on lot number 32, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture called Woman Of Venice III, which sold for US$25 million.

The auction was a testament to the quality of Mr Allen’s collection, which included a diverse range of works from the German-American painter-sculptor Max Ernst, whose sculpture The King Playing With The Queen sold for US$24.3 million, to the American Jasper Johns, one of the few living artists featured in the collection, whose lithograph Small False Start sold for US$55.35 million. AFP