The first private art collection to raise a billion dollars. Christie’s auction house has that expectation of the proceeds from the 150 artworks collection of Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. The auction house announced on Thursday that it would sell the collection of both old masters and modern masterpieces in New York in November.
Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, died in 2018 at age 64. With an estimated net worth of about $20 billion, he was considered one of the richest people in the world. He never married and had no children. The proceeds of the auction will go to charities, the auction house announced.
From Botticelli to Hockney
Allen’s collection spans 500 years, from Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli to David Hockney. Although Allen regularly lent art to museums, it is not known exactly what he owned. Christie’s announced just two paintings on Thursday that it will be offering in November. The canvas Small False Start (1960) by Jasper Johns with a target price of $50 million, and a landscape by Paul Cézanne, La montagne Sainte-Victoire (1888-1890), with an estimated revenue of over $100 million.
American media mention all kinds of artwork that Allen is said to have bought. According to Bloomberg news agency In 2016, he bought a haystack painted by Claude Monet at an auction for $81 million. According to The Wall Street Journal he owned old masters by Botticelli, Jan Brueghel and Canaletto.
In an interview in 2006, Allen stated that he saw it as his duty to regularly lend his works of art to museums. “I am only a temporary keeper of them.” His sister Jody, the executor of his estate, said in a statement what art meant to her brother. “He believed that art expressed a unique view of reality in a way that can inspire us all.”
It has not yet been announced which charities the safe proceeds will go to. During his lifetime, Allen has donated more than $2.6 billion of his fortune to causes related to life science, art, music, film and the environment.
Also read: Auctioned Macklowe Collection Is Most Expensive Private Collection Ever
The two most expensive private collections auctioned ever also belonged to Americans. David and Peggy Rockefeller’s collection grossed $835 million at Christie’s in 2018. That record yield was broken in 2021 and 2022 with two auctions of the art of Harry and Linda Macklowe. That very elderly couple had to sell by order of the judge because they were getting divorced after he had found a young girlfriend. Sotheby’s realized a revenue of 922 million dollars for the Macklowe collection.