Miles Harris, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license*
Paul G. Allen at Flying Heritage Collection, located at Paine Field, Everett, Washington, United States. 2 April 2013
Paul Allen Collection at Christie's
Worth billions: the most extraordinary art auction in history
Christie's is proud of this auction. It is said to be »the largest and most exceptional in history.« On November 9 and 10, the auction house will sell the billion-dollar art collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen. It also reveals what will happen to the proceeds.
November 07, 2022
After the eyelid opens, the pupil dilates for a split second. It looks at the Space Needle, Seattle's most famous building, a Steinway grand piano, a computer center, a well-stocked library, an old computer into which someone is inserting a floppy disk, a rocket rising. They had been visionaries, says an off-screen voice that audibly accompanies the image film for the largely announced auction at Christie's.
Although he was the co-founder of Microsoft, he enjoyed less international fame than his colleague Bill Gates. Paul G. Allen maintained an art collection worth billions: Cezanne, Hockney, Picasso, Manet, Monet, Richter – the list of top-class artists is never-ending. The collection comprises more than 150 works from a good 500 years of art history. Christie's now plans to auction them off on November 9 and 10 at Rockefeller Center under the title Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection. From October 29 to November 8, interested parties were allowed to view the works there in person.
The auction house is letting the whole world know in advance that the art auction »is poised to be the largest and most exceptional in history, valued in excess of $1 billion.« The proceeds go to philanthropy, as Allen, who died in 2018, had wished for his estate.
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More on the subject Auction Market
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Dive deeper into the art world
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On March 7, the Berlinische Galerie will open three parallel exhibitions that showcase the breadth of the collection: With Provenances. Wayfaring Art, Käthe Kruse. It's All Good Now and Psychonauts. John Bock and Heiner Franzen, visitors can expect a unique art experience.
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by Felix Brosius,
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