Paul Allen’s art collection with works by Cezanne and Suerat sells for $1.5BILLION

An art collection owned by Microsoft founder Paul Allen last night sold at auction for $1.5 billion- setting a new record. 

Paul Allen founded the technology company with Bill Gates in 1975, his childhood friend who he convinced to drop out of Harvard to start the company. He left the company in 1983 but remained on the board until 2000. 

Allen passed away in October 2018 at the age of 65 due to complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. He never married and had no children.

According to Forbes, he had a net worth of US$20.8 billion at the time of his death. In 2010 he signed a pledge to leave most of his fortune to charity. 

Last night, the first 60 pieces from his prestigious art collection, which featured pieces by Cezanne and Seurat, went under the hammer at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York, in an auction attended by wealthy collectors from across the world.

At the start of the auction of ‘Visionary: The Paul G.Allen Collection, Adrian Meyer, leading the early part of the sales, said the prices would be the ‘largest and most exceptional in Christie’s history’- he was correct. 

The top seller, Seurat’s ‘Les Poseuses, Ensemble’, an oil-on-canvas, painted in 1888, sold for $149.2 million and last appeared at auction 50 years ago. 

Elsewhere, Cezanne’s oil-on-canvas La montagne Sainte-Victoire, painted between 1888 and 1890, sold for $120 million.

Gaugin’s Maternite II sold for $92 million, Birch Forest by Gustav Klimt fetched $91 million and Lucian Freud’s Large Interior Q11 (after Watteau) went for $86.3 million. 

Other big sellers were Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat, which made $42 million and Le Grand Canal a Venise by Eduoard Manet which went for $45 million. 

Another auction is taking place today, selling another 95 pieces from Allen’s art collection- it is also expected to be a record-breaking event. 

Christie’s called the collection ‘Visionary’ to embrace the range of Allen’s talents and pursuits. These included inventions and writing.

His collection and perception of art was as ‘the perfect lens through which to view and understand the world.’

Proceeds from the auction will benefit a range of charities which Allen supported during his lifetime.

The top seller, Seurat’s ‘Les Poseuses, Ensemble’, an oil-on-canvas, painted in 1888, pictured, sold for $149.2 million and last appeared at auction 50 years ago

 Gaugin’s Maternite II, left, sold for $92 million, Birch Forest by Gustav Klimt, right fetched $91 million and Lucian Freud’s Large Interior Q11 (after Watteau) went for $86.3 million

 Elsewhere, Cezanne’s oil-on-canvas La montagne Sainte-Victoire, pictured, painted between 1888 and 1890, sold for $120 million

Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat, pictured, went for $42 million at the auction

Paul Allen founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, pictured together, his childhood friend who he convinced to drop out of Harvard to start the company. He left the company in 1983 but remained on the board until 2000

At the auction, five of the paintings sold for $100 million and other artworks sold for three or four times their estimates. 

Paintings from Georgia O’Keefe, Claude Monet, David Hockney, Andrew Wyeth and Pablo Picasso also sold, along with sculptures by Alexander Calder and Max Ernst.

A 1905 print of a photograph by Edward Steichen, ‘The Flatiron,’ sold for $11.8 million, a record for a Steichen work and nearly four times Christie’s highest estimate.

Allen’s collection was expected to be sold for at least $1billion but the total will climb even higher today as another 95 works are sold in an auction that began at 11am at Christie’s.

 The Grand Canal, Venice, Looking Southeast, with the Campo della Carità to the Right by Canaletto, is one of the paintings in Allen’s collection, pictured

Jasper Johns’s 1959 collage work False Start, another part of Paul Allen’s collection (pictured)

Allen said of his artwork in an interview: ‘You have to be doing it because you just love the works… and you know that all these works are going to outlast you. You’re only a temporary custodian of them.’

His sister, and the executor of his state, Jody Allen, told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘To Paul, art was both analytical and emotional. He believed that art expressed a unique view of reality – combining the artist’s inner state and inner eye – in a way that can inspire us all. His collection reflects the diversity of his interests, with their own mystique and beauty.’ 

Jody Allen went on to say that it was her brother’s wishes that his art collection be sold on after his death with the funds going towards charitable causes. 

She said: ‘These works mean so much to so many, and I know that Christie’s will ensure their respectful dispersal to generate tremendous value for philanthropic pursuits in accordance with Paul’s wishes.’ 

The statement did not name the specific charitable causes in question. Among the causes that Allen was passionate about during his lifetime was medical research, bioscience, endangered species and homelessness. During his lifetime, Allen’s charitable donations exceeded $2 billion.

American modernist artist Georgia O’Keefe completed her work White Rose with Larkspur No 1 in 1927, pictured

In 2000, Paul allen paid Sotheby’s $14.3 million for Mark Rothko’s 1956 abstract

While Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti said in a statement: ‘The inspirational figure of Paul Allen, the extraordinary quality and diversity of works, and the dedication of all proceeds to philanthropy, create a unique combination that will make the sale of the Paul G. Allen Collection an event of unprecedented magnitude.’

Cerutti continued: ‘Paul’s life was guided by his desire to make this world a better place. We believe that presenting his collection at auction and giving the opportunity to wider audiences to discover it will be a fitting tribute to celebrate Paul Allen’s vision and legacy.’

The previous record of $922 million was set by the Harry and Linda Macklowe collection which was auctioned at Sotheby’s.

The couple’s collection, which included works by Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter, was sold off at Sotheby’s in New York City in two separate auctions. The previous record was held by banker David Rockefeller and his wife, Peggy, who sold off their $835 million collection in 2018. 

That same month, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol, became the most expensive single piece of art ever when it was auctioned off to an unknow buyer at Christie’s for over $195 million. 

Jan Brueghel’s The Sight, another Allen’s prized possessions. During his life, Allen referred to himself as a ‘custodian’ of great works of art

Another of Allen’s works was The Reader by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Allen was known for his eclectic collections that included the first chair sat in by William Shatner in the first episode of the television series Star Trek as well as a range of guitars owned by Jimi Hendrix. In 2000, Allen founded Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture while in 2015, he founded the Seattle Art Fair. 

During his life, Allen was a regular attendee of the Venice Biennale art festival in Italy. 

In 2015, he told Bloomberg: ‘To live with these pieces of art is truly amazing. I feel that you should share some of the works to give the public a chance to see them.’ Allen said in the same interview that his art collection was a ‘very, very good investment for me.’

Allen’s advisor on art acquisitions, Pablo Schugurensky, told ArtNet following the tech billionaire’s death: ‘He would ask questions and listen, and would remember everything. He was ambitious about collecting and he was always extremely curious about learning.’ 

In the same piece, the executive director of the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington, Ben Heywood, said of Allen’s collection: ‘What differentiates Paul from other top collectors is that he didn’t have any need to justify his collecting to anybody. [Allen] was not collecting as part of a peer activity where the collections were assembled in order to make him look good.’

Claude Monet’s 1919 work Water Lily Pond is one of the masterpieces owned by Paul Allen

According to Allen’s official website, he got his love of art from his parents. The biography reads in part: ‘Art was always a part of Paul’s childhood, introduced to him by his parents, but it was only years later that he became more aware of its life-changing impact.’

It was a visit to London’s Tate Gallery that exposed him to classical works by J.M.W Turner as well as the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein. That visit left Allen ‘profoundly moved.’ The bio continues by saying: ‘That experience ignited within him a passion for art — and for making art accessible to more people.’

Allen was born in Seattle, Washington, where he was raised and eventually attended Lakeside School, the private learning institution where he first became friends with Gates.

In their teenage years the two worked in the computer labs at the nearby University of Washington, and upon graduating Allen spent two years at Washington State University.

He dropped out before getting a degree though and headed off to Boston, where he took a job as a computer programmer at Honeywell.

Allen, pictured, was born in Seattle, Washington, where he was raised and eventually attended Lakeside School, the private learning institution where he first became friends with Gates

That put him close to Gates, who was two years younger and attending Harvard at the time.

Once Gates dropped out of Harvard the two got started on their new company, putting a BASIC programming language interpreter on the market in 1975 and the following year starting to build a staff.

In 1978 Microsoft’s revenue exceeded a million dollars and the next year the company moved from Albuquerque to Seattle.

Microsoft made its next leap forward in 1980 when the company was chosen by IBM to create the operating system for its first PC.

Following Allen’s death, Gates said in a statement: ‘I am heartbroken by the passing of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Paul Allen. From our early days together at Lakeside School, through our partnership in the creation of Microsoft, to some of our joint philanthropic projects over the years, Paul was a true partner and dear friend,’ he said in a statement. ‘Personal computing would not have existed without him.’ 

‘Paul wasn’t content with starting one company. He channeled his intellect and compassion into a second act focused on improving people’s lives and strengthening communities in Seattle and around the world. He was fond of saying, ‘If it has the potential to do good, then we should do it.’ That’s the kind of person he was.’