Art collection owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen fetches US$1.6 billion

In just one auction on Wednesday, 60 works of art changed hands for US$1.506 billion — make it the biggest sale in auction history.

The sale of a hugely valuable collection of art amassed by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has set records for some of the highest art prices the world has seen. In just one auction on Wednesday, 60 works of art changed hands for US$1.506 billion — making it the biggest sale in auction history.

The collection spanned 500 years of history in 155 works of art. Five pieces — paintings done by modernist masters Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne, and the art nouveau visionary, Gustav Klimt — sold for over $100 million each, setting new records for those artists.

“Never before have more than two paintings exceeded $100 million in a single sale, but tonight, we saw five,” said Max Carter, vice chairman of 20th and 21st century art at Christie’s.

Christie’s says it’s the most valuable private art collection in the world, having sold an additional $116.6 million in art in the second day of the auction, which concluded Thursday. In total, Allen’s art collection brought in $1,622,987,500 and 100 per cent of the pieces sold.

In accordance with the Giving Pledge, a campaign that urges billionaires to donate the vast majority of their wealth, the proceeds of Allen’s art collection will go to charity.

The previous record holder of most valuable collection was held by the Macklowes, a wealthy New York couple who sold their art collection for $922 million earlier this year.

One reason why the super-rich may be spending millions at the auction recently is because they are viewing art as a safe investment amid an unstable global economy and the Ukraine war, the BBC reported.

Allen passed away in 2018 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Bill Gates. At the time of his death he was the 37th richest man in the world with an estimated worth of $13.5 billion, according to Forbes.