Part of the private collection of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, was unveiled Wednesday, October 12 in Los Angeles for an auction by Christie's, which estimates its total value at a billion dollars, which would be a record. Titled “Visionary,” the sale will take place in New York on November 9 and 10 and features more than 150 works, including paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Gustav Klimt, as well as French painters Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to charity, according to the last wishes of Paul Allen, who died in 2018.
“This is the highest value collection ever sold at auction. It's an event that only happens once in a century," Johanna Flaum, vice-president of 20th and 21st century art at Christie's, told AFP. The current record for private collections was set last spring by American couple Harry and Linda Macklowe, with $922 million in multiple auctions at Sotheby's. According to Christie's, the most expensive pieces in Paul Allen's collection are Paul Cézanne's Sainte-Victoire Mountain , with an estimated price of $120 million, and Orchard with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh, with an estimated price of $100 million. of dollars.
A visionary, and visionaries
“The collection covers many periods of art history, which makes Paul Allen a unique collector,” describes Johanna Flaum. “Paul Allen being a visionary himself, the artists here are visionaries on their own ,” she added. Part of the collection will be exhibited to the public before the sale in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Shanghai and New York.
Died of cancer at the age of 65, Paul Allen imagined, with Bill Gates, the operating system for personal computers that was to make the success of Microsoft, founded in 1975. He left the group in 1983, due to problems of health but also of a deteriorated relationship with Bill Gates, who was to remain in charge until 2000.
Le Figaro.
art expert: https://www.vwart.com/
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