This is a historic sale that took place at Christie’s in New York. A sale that exceeded one billion dollars. The collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen who passed away in 2018, consisting of works by great names in painting, broke all records. A sign that the art market continues to progress despite economic uncertainties linked to the war in Ukraine and inflation, five paintings entered the closed circle of works sold at auction for over $ 100 million during this memorable evening at Rockefeller Center of Manhattan.
The most expensive, The poses, together (reduced version) (1888) by Georges Seurat, a painting considered a masterpiece of pointillism, another version of which hangs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, reached $ 149.24 million, including taxes, Christie’s announced. The company did not provide information on the identity of the buyers, which is customary for auction houses.
Christie’s, controlled by François Pinault’s holding company Artémis, announced that the entire amount of the sales would be donated to charity. Despite the quarrel with Bill Gates, his partner in the birth of Microsoft in 1975, the American billionaire Paul Allen, had signed his “Giving Pledge” in 2009, pledging to donate most of his fortune.
#Auction register From the Paul G. Allen collection ‘Les poseuses, ensemble (Petite version)’ by Georges Seurat set an auction record for the artist with a realized price of $ 149.24 million, nearly 5 times the artist’s previous record pic.twitter.com/pnAWYnfoAh
– Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2022
If only 60 of 150 lots were sold on Wednesday (the rest will be Thursday), the value of the collection has already surpassed the previous record for the Macklowe collection, named after a wealthy New York couple, which reached $ 922 million at competitor Sotheby’s in the spring.
According to an AFP calculation, the sale was about 1.5 billion dollars. Over one billion for lot number 32, a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, Woman of Venice IIIsold for $ 25 million, an almost trivial figure Wednesday night, in the crowded auction room at Christie’s.
By the German-American painter-sculptor Max Ernst, whose sculpture The king playing with the queen left for $ 24.3 million, to American Jasper Johns, one of the few living artists in the collection, including a lithograph Little false beginningit was sold for 55.35 million, passing through Diego Rivera and Lucian Freud, numerous auction records for artists fell one after another.
This avalanche testifies to the quality of the collection amassed by Paul Allen, a multi-millionaire handyman, who had founded a “pop culture” museum in his hometown of Seattle, and who owned several sports franchises, including the Seattle Seahawks.
#Auction register From the Paul G. Allen collection “Verger avec cyprès” by Vincent Van Gogh set an auction record for the artist with a realized price of $ 117.18 million pic.twitter.com/H4PEusfmo0
– Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2022
So after Le Poseuse by Georges Seurat, a Mount Sainte-Victoire (1888-1890) by Paul Cézanne, herald of Cubism, reached 137.79 million. Records were also broken for Vincent Van Gogh, whose Orchard with cypresses sold for $ 117.1 million, or for Paul Gauguin, including a painting from the Tahitian period, Maternity II (1899), went for $ 105.73 million. A work by Gustav Klimt, Birch forestreached $ 104.5 million, another record.
With these sales, and that of a portrait of Marilyn Monroe He shot sage blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol, which started in May for 195 million dollars, 2022 should remain one of the most expensive in the history of the art market.
According to auction house experts, art is more than ever a safe investment in the eyes of the richest, despite an uncertain economic environment. “Clients want to diversify their assets, profit from art and because they know that most works continue to increase in value over time“explained a few days before the sale, the co-chair of Christie’s Impressionists and Modern Art department, Adrien Meyer.
“There are more billionaires than masterpieces“available on the market, he summarized, and”the question is very varied“, with an increasingly strong presence of customers from Asia and the Middle East.
#Auction register From the Paul G. Allen collection, Paul Cezanne’s “La Montaigne Sainte-Victoire” set an auction record for the artist with a realized price of $ 137.79 million, more than double the previous auction record of the artist pic.twitter.com/EhTqYcI1fK
– Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2022
