Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s art collection fetches record $1.5bn

In just two-and-a-half hours this week, Christie’s auction house presided over the largest single-owner sale in history.

Drawn from the art collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, just 60 artworks sold for an unprecedented $1.5bn. The auction carried a presale estimate of $1bn to $1.38bn. (The total includes auction house fees known as the buyer’s premium; the estimate does not.) Proceeds from the sale will go to philanthropy, according to executors of Allen’s estate, with causes yet to be disclosed.

As the sale began, the nervous energy in the room was palpable. Certain lots, including paintings by Lucian Freud, Gustav Klimt and Paul Cézanne, were expected to exceed their high estimates, but the spectacular valuations, with several at or above $100m, guaranteed that there was no such thing as a sure-fire winner.

The room was packed with emissaries of the ultra rich. Most of the art dealers and advisers, dressed in a conservative mixture of dark suits and blazers (for men and women) were there to bid on behalf of their clients. Similarly, two phone banks of auction house specialists flanked the room; over the course of the evening, these specialists called up collectors who’d expressed interest in different lots and then bid on their behalf as the potential buyers listened and gave their assent to any higher bids. In keeping with a trend in recent years, few if any actual collectors were on the sales floor. To be seen visibly bidding, it seems, is now a form of indiscretion reserved for those in the trade.

Setting the tone

The first major work set the tone for the rest of the evening, with sustained bidding from multiple collectors, even at the highest tier.

A tiny pointillist painting by Georges Seurat was the seventh lot to hit the auction block. Carrying an estimate of $100m, the auctioneer Adrien Meyer began bidding at $75m. After phone bidders pushed the price up in increments that ranged from $5m to $1m, the hammer price came down at $130m; with fees, its total came to $149.4m.

Other standout results included a painting by Gauguin estimated at $90m, which sold for $105.7m;  a landscape by Van Gogh carried a presale estimate of $100m but ended up blowing past expectations to sell for $117.2m; and the second-biggest lot of the sale by value, a rare landscape by Cézanne that carried a presale estimate of $120m, sold for $137.8m.

Almost exactly halfway through the sale, the auction total had officially reached $1bn.

“It’s such a carefully crafted collection,” says Nanne Dekking, the founder and CEO of Artory, speaking after the auction. “Everything already had a proven track record. These weren’t the most gutsy or risky acquisitions, these were artists who are already bought by other people for substantial amounts of money.” The final result, he continues, “is incredible, but it’s also to be expected”.

Records broken

The night had a series of firsts. Most important, Allen’s collection became the most valuable collection to ever sell publicly, easily surpassing a record set earlier this year by Harry and Linda Macklowe, who, as a condition of their contentious divorce, sold their collection of 65 artworks for $922m over two auctions. That, in turn, had bested the previous record set in 2018, when a series of auctions from the estate of Peggy and David Rockefeller totalled $835m.

Five paintings sold for more than $100m  each — the most ever in one sale, according to Christie’s. A grand total of 20 artworks set records: household names including Seurat, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Klimt, Freud, Johns, Signac, Ernst and Rivera all set new, public-sale benchmarks.

“Let’s all take a moment to recall that this was made possible by one man’s passionate pursuit of excellence,” said Marc Porter, chair of Christie’s Americas, in a statement after the sale.

Half of the participants (by lot) came from the Americas, according to Christie’s. Just 12% came from the Asia-Pacific region, a potential rebuke to the narrative that Asian bidders are willing to spend huge sums for the very best.

As the hammer came down on the final lot, a painting of a cafe cart by the artist Wayne Thiebaud, the night’s second auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen breathed an audible sigh of relief. “It’s been a historic sale, so thank you for joining us,” Pylkkänen said as the room burst into applause. “Well done.”

On Thursday, a much smaller auction from Allen’s collection, with 95 lower-priced lots, is estimated to total between $58m and $87m.

Bloomberg News. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com