Five dozen works by Klimt, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh and other artists grossed $ 1.506 billion on Wednesday. According to Christie’s auction house in New York, this was the highest amount ever raised in a single art auction. The proceeds will be donated to charity as everyone wishes.
Thursday will continue the spectacular auction of the collection of the co-founder of Microsoft, for a total of more than 150 works of 500 years of art history. The previous record auction proceeds of a private art collection is $ 922 million and was reached in May of this year for the collection of the US couple Harry and Linda Macklowe.
A record price was achieved not only for Klimt’s “Buchenwald / Birkenwald” (1903), which Allen bought at auction in 2006 for 40.336 million dollars (at the time the equivalent of 31.6 million euros). The most expensive painting of the evening was Georges Seurat’s “Les Poseuses, Ensemble (petite version)”. The work is considered the pinnacle of pointillism. It changed hands for $ 149 million, a new high for the artist.
Paul Gauguin Maternité II’s oil painting (1899) sold for $ 106 million. Paul Cézanne’s “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” (1888-90, $ 138 million including taxes) and Vincent Van Gogh’s “Verger avec cyprès” ($ 117 million) also crossed the $ 100 million mark. The works of Jasper Jones (“Small False Start” earned $ 55.4 million) and Lucian Freud (“Large Interior” earned $ 86.3 million) also reached top levels.
Klimt’s “Buchenwald / Birkenwald” was valued by Christie’s at over $ 90 million, more than double what Allen paid in 2006. It is one of five paintings for which the Republic of Austria has had a long dispute over restitution. against the heirs of the Bloch-Bauer family. The now new owner had been informed in advance that he had been asked to sell his new property between February and May 2024 in favor of the Neue Galerie in New York: the painting had been requested on loan for the exhibition “Gustav Klimt: Landscapes” .
Klimt’s records have so far been held by “Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, the “Golden Adele”, which went to Ronald Lauder priced at $ 135 million as the world’s most expensive painting outside of an auction. at the time, and the portrait “Adele Bloch-Bauer II”, which US media star Oprah Winfrey bought at Christie’s in New York for $ 87.9 million and sold to a Chinese collector for $ 150 million over ten years after.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died of cancer at the age of 65. He founded the company with Bill Gates in 1975. In 1983 he left the software giant for health reasons and strains with Gates, but remained active as an entrepreneur and investor.
Despite tensions with Gates, Allen signed up to his Giving Pledge initiative. The billionaire has pledged to donate much of his fortune.
