Eva Deschamps / August 27, 2022
The collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will be auctioned at a Christie's sale in New York in November, the auction house announced Thursday, estimating it at more than $1 billion, which would be an all-time record.
More than 150 works will be offered, including the painting La montagne Sainte-Victoire by French painter Paul Cézanne, estimated at more than $100 million, according to a statement.
All proceeds from the sale will go to charity, according to Christie's.
Died of cancer in 2018 at 65, Paul Allen imagined, with Bill Gates, the operating system for personal computers that would make the success of Microsoft, founded in 1975. He left the group in 1983, because of health problems but also because of a deteriorated relationship with Bill Gates, who was to remain in charge until 2000.
In addition to the Cézanne, Paul Allen's trophies include Small False Start by the American painter Jasper Johns, estimated at more than 50 million dollars, according to the New York Times, as well as paintings by Monet, Manet, Brueghel the Younger, Klimt, Hockney and Richter.
With this sale, which follows that of the Macklowe collection and Andy Warhol's portrait of Marilyn Monroe Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which sold for $195 million at the beginning of May (a record for a 20th century work), the current year could remain one of the most significant in the history of the art market.
The inspirational figure of Paul Allen, the extraordinary quality and diversity of the works, and the dedication of the proceeds to art create a unique combination that will make the sale of the Paul Allen Collection an event of unprecedented magnitude, commented Christie's Director Guillaume Cerutti.