The extensive art collection belonging to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen broke records on Wednesday night, bringing in $1.5-billion (R26.6-billion) at an auction in New York.
Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, passed away in 2018 at the age of 65.
He was ranked 44th-wealthiest person in the world by Forbes at the time of his death, with an estimated net worth of $20.3-billion. Known as active art collector, wealthy people around the world always scramble to get their hands on some of the sought-after masterpieces that Allen collected over the years.
“The evening saw 60 extraordinary works achieve a total of $1 506 386.000, establishing the Allen collection as the most valuable private collection in history. Five paintings achieved prices above $100-million,” auction house Christie’s said in a statement.
“The works in the sale sold 100% by lot with 65% of the lots selling above their high estimates. Pursuant to Mr Allen’s wishes, the estate will dedicate all proceeds from the landmark series of sales to philanthropy.
“The top price of the evening was $149 240.000 for Georges Seurat’s Les Poseuses Ensemble [Petite version], tripling the record price for the artist after more than five minutes of intense bidding.
“Another visionary of painterly innovation, Paul Cezanne, was the artist behind one of the night’s star lots, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which fetched $137 790.000, shattering the existing record for the artist.”
Day two of the auction continues on Thursday night with more of Allen’s masterpieces up for grabs.
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