Most Expensive Art Auction Ever: Paul Allen’s Collection Fetches Record $1 Billion

Topline

Art amassed by late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen brought in more than $1 billion at Christie’s Wednesday evening, setting the record for the most valuable single-owner art collection ever sold at auction, only halfway through the first night of the two-day sale–here’s which pieces have fetched the most.

Key Facts

What To Watch For

Another 95 artworks from Allen’s collection will go to auction on Thursday during a day sale. The pieces on sale are estimated to fetch lower prices than those that sold Wednesday, with the most expensive–a sculpture by Claes Oldenburg, “Typewriter Eraser, Scale X”— expected to sell for as much as $7 million.

Big Number

$922.2 million. That was the previous record for the most valuable art collection sold at auction. It was set just six months ago in May when Manhattan real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his former wife Linda sold their art collection after their high-profile divorce.

Surprising Fact

At least 13 artists’ auction records were broken Wednesday night alone. Artwork by Seurat, Gauguin, Cézanne, Klimt, Van Gogh, Jasper Johns, Henri-Edmond Cross, Henri Le Sidaner, Paul Signac, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Steichen, Lucian Freud and Jan Breughel the Younger reached fetched higher prices than at any other auction.

Forbes Valuation

We estimated Allen was worth $20.3 billion in 2018, the year he died. He cofounded Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Bill Gates. After his death, responsibility for his foundation went to his sister, Jody, who has been gradually selling off his estate.

Key Background

Allen didn’t start collecting art until the early 1990s, after he visited the Tate Modern in London and realized he too could own world-class artwork, according to Deborah Gunn, who was associate director of art finance at Vulcan, Allen’s investment management company. Allen’s taste was varied and his collection spans more than 500 years of art history, from Botticelli to McArthur Binion. He was particularly drawn to pointillism and Jasper Johns’ “numbers” series, which he said reminded him of coding. Allen also enjoyed landscapes and scenes of Venice, of which the auction includes eight.

What We Don’t Know

The full size of the art collection Allen put together during his lifetime. A notoriously secretive collector, Allen did not publicize his art when he was alive, and even this auction of more than 150 pieces isn’t the full picture, according to Christie’s. Allen owned artwork that would be worth an additional $500 million, an investigation from Artnet found.

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