Christie’s to Sell Microsoft Co-Founder's $1 Billion Art Collection
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Christie’s auction house announced that it would sell the art collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who died in 2018. The proceeds from Allen's collection, which includes more than 150 works of art spanning 500 years, will be donated to charity.
"To Paul, art was both analytical and emotional," Allen's sister, Jody Allen, said in a statement. (Jody is also the executor of the Paul G. Allen Estate.) "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. 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."
Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Bill Gates, and in 2010, he became an early signatory to the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away the majority of his net worth. When he was awarded the 2015 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, Allen shared, "one of my core goals is to accelerate discovery and provide some of the world’s brightest minds with the resources to solve some of the world’s thorniest challenges." At the time of his death in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Forbes estimated his net worth to be around $20 billion.
Highlights of Allen's collection include Paul Cézanne’s "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire," Jasper Johns’s "Small False Start," and other works by the likes of David Hockney, Botticelli, Renoir, and Roy Lichtenstein. The image above is "Birch Forest" by Gustav Klimt from 1903, also found in Allen's collection.
"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," Christie's CEO Guillaume Cerutti said in a statement.
The auction, set to be the biggest in history for a private collection, will take place sometime in November 2022.
You Might Also Like
