You have to be doing it because you just love the works… and you know that all these works are going to outlast you.
In 2018, Christie's auctioned David Rockefeller's art collection for an impressive $835 million. Late last year and early this year, Sotheby's surpassed that whopping sum when the Macklowe Collection grossed a staggering $922 million. But all this will be overshadowed this November when the collection of philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen (1953-2018) comes under the hammer at Christie's New York.
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Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection is the title of the auction, which brings together 150 works from 500 years of art history, which are valued at a total of $1 billion. It will be "the largest and most extraordinary art auction in history," as Christie's announced in a press release. The sale will include Paul Cezanne's landscape La montagne Sainte-Victoire (1888-1890), which is valued in excess of $100 million, as well as Jasper Johns' abstract Small False Start (1960) with an estimate of $50 million.
“To Paul, art was both analytical and emotional," said Jody Allen, Paul G. Allen's sister, executor and President of the Paul G Allen Family Foundation. "He believed that art expressed a unique view of reality – combining the artist’s inner state and inner eye – in a way that can inspire us all. His collection reflects the diversity of his interests, with their own mystique and beauty. These works mean so much to so many, and I know that Christie’s will ensure their respectful dispersal to generate tremendous value for philanthropic pursuits in accordance with Paul’s wishes.”
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Art and philanthropy figured prominently in the life of Paul G. Allen, who co-founded the software company Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, becoming one of the richest people in the world. With his immense wealth he founded the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in 1986, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in 2000, and the Allen Institute, which is dedicated to brain and cell research in immunology, in 2003.
In 2010, Allen was one of the first to sign the Giving Pledge, a commitment to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. In 2015 he was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of his philanthropic activities. By the time of his death in 2018, he had given away $2.65 billion.
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The auction of his art collection is the next step in advancing Paul G. Allen's vision of a better world. He shared many of his works of art with the public during his lifetime by leaving them to museums as anonymous loans. "You have to be doing it because you just love the works… and you know that all these works are going to outlast you. You're only a temporary custodian of them," Allen said in an interview at the Seeing Nature exhibition, which toured the United States in 2016 and for which he donated 39 landscape paintings from his collection.
Christie's recognizes the enormous responsibility that comes with the auctioning of this exceptional collection, as expressed by Guillaume Cerutti, Chief Executive Officer of Christie's: “The inspirational figure of Paul Allen, the extraordinary quality and diversity of works, and the dedication of all proceeds to philanthropy, create a unique combination that will make the sale of the Paul G. Allen Collection an event of unprecedented magnitude. Paul’s life was guided by his desire to make this world a better place. We believe that presenting his collection at auction and giving the opportunity to wider audiences to discover it will be a fitting tribute to celebrate Paul Allen’s vision and legacy."
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