{"id":57459,"date":"2022-08-26T22:04:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T22:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-co-founder-paul-allens-1-billion-art-collection-up-for-auction-at-christies\/"},"modified":"2022-08-26T22:04:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T22:04:08","slug":"microsoft-co-founder-paul-allens-1-billion-art-collection-up-for-auction-at-christies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-co-founder-paul-allens-1-billion-art-collection-up-for-auction-at-christies\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $1 billion art collection up for auction at Christie’s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Late Microsoft founder Paul Allen’s stunning art collection will soon hit the auction block and is expected to fetch over $1 billion \u2014 the most expensive art auction in history.<\/p>\n

In a statement released late Thursday, Christie’s confirmed that it had won the rights to sell more than 150 \u201cmasterpieces\u201d spanning 500 years of art history, including works from Paul C\u00e9zanne, Roy Lichtenstein and Georgia O’Keeffe.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cVisionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection,\u201d the November sale is expected to earn an excess of $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Christie’s confirmed that all proceeds will be divided among several charities, \u201cpursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen, who died in 2018 of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Bill Gates. After leaving the company in 1983 (he remained on the board until 2000), he built a veritable reputation as a philanthropist and collector.<\/p>\n

Billionaire Paul Allen died in 2018.<\/figcaption>
Corbis via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Allen,
Allen, right, pictured with friend and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1984.<\/figcaption>
Corbis via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Valued at $20 billion at the time of his death, Allen’s lifetime charitable contributions totaled $2 billion distributed to medical, cultural, and environmental causes. The founder of both Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture and the Seattle Art Fair, Allen was also a frequent lender to the Seattle Art Museum. <\/p>\n

A passionate but discreet collector, Allen was posthumously identified as the anonymous 2016 buyer of Claude Monet’s \u201cMeule,\u201d the first in his haystacks series. The painting was sold at Christie’s for $81.4 million.<\/p>\n

Other anticipated highlights at the auction include Jasper Johns’s 1960 \u201cSmall False Start,\u201d expected to start bidding at $50 million, and Paul C\u00e9zanne’s 1888-90 landscape \u201cLa Montagne Sainte-Victoire,\u201d valued at $100 million.<\/p>\n

\""The
\u201cThe Reader\u201d by Pierre-Auguste Renior, 1875-76.<\/figcaption>
De Agostini via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to his official website, Allen’s passion for art stemmed from his childhood, and was further entrenched after a visit to London’s Tate Gallery left him \u201cprofoundly moved.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be [collecting art] because you just love the works \u2026 and you know that all these works are going to outlast you,\u201d Allen said in 2006. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re only a temporary customer of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""The
\u201cThe Kiss\u201d by Roy Lichtenstein, 1962.<\/figcaption>
Paul G. Allen Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a 2018 interview after Allen’s death, Ben Heywood, executive director and chief curator of the Bellevue Arts Museum, described the tech wizard as unique from other art buffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat differentiates Paul from other top collectors is that he didn’t have any need to justify his collecting to anybody,\u201d he told ArtNet.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Allen] was not collecting as part of a peer activity where the collections were assembled in order to make him look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""La
\u201cLa Montaigne Sainte-Victoire\u201d by Paul C\u00e9zanne, 1888-90.<\/figcaption>
Paul G. Allen Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Allen’s former acquisitions advisor Pablo Schugurensky agreed, saying how \u201che would ask questions and listen, and would remember everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was ambitious about collection and he was always extremely curious about learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen was also no snob about what he liked, and mingled his loftier purchases with quirkier items like the first chair William Shatner sat in on the first episode of Star Trek and a range of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. <\/p>\n

\"Allen
Allen was the anonymous buyer of Claude Monet’s \u201cMeule\u201d in 2016.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2010, Allen pledged to leave the majority of his fortune to charity. But even before his death, he was dedicated to sharing his art collection with the public.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Bloomberg in 2015, he said \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimberly Rorschach, director and CEO of the Seattle Museum, described Allen as a generous supporter whose time and energy helped the institution at \u201ca critical time in our history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jasper
Jasper John’s \u201cSmall False Start\u201d could sell for over $50 million.<\/figcaption>
Paul G. Allen Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti promised in a statement that the sale of Allen’s collection would be \u201can event of unprecedented magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n