The entire amount of sales will be paid to charity works, in accordance with the will of the co -founder of Microsoft, died in 2018.
Le Monde with AFP
The CAP of the billion dollars was expected for the auction at Christie’s in New York of the art collection of the co -founder of Microsoft Paul Allen, who died in 2018. It was widely exceeded with a record amount of 1, $ 62 billion (1.59 billion euros) after two days of auction on Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 November.
The value of this collection has energized the previous record of the Macklowe collection, named after a wealthy New York couple, who had reached $ 922 million in the competitor Sotheby’s, in the spring.
Sign that the art market continues to grow in an insolent manner despite the geopolitical and economic uncertainties, five works were notably acquired for an amount of more than 100 million dollars each. These are:
- Les Pose ensembles – Small version of Georges Seurat, sold $ 149.2 million;
- The Sainte-Victoire mountain of Paul Cézanne (137.7 million);
- Orchard with Cypress by Vincent Van Gogh (117.1 million);
- Maternity II of Paul Gauguin (105.7 million);
- Birch Forest by Gustav Klimt (104.5 million).
This absolute record for an auction of works of art had set itself from the first day, Wednesday, more than 1.5 billion dollars thanks in particular to these five tables, as well as Waterloo Bridge, time Covered with Claude Monet awarded $ 64.5 million. Thursday evening, the second part of the sale reached “only” $ 116 million. 2> a year 2022 of the most lucrative 2>
“The collection of Paul G. Allen has attracted tens of thousands of visitors to the art galleries of Christie’s around the world and is now entering history establishing a record for the most expensive auction Never “realized, was delighted in a press release the CEO of the New York house, Guillaume Cerutti.
In total, the collection included “155 masterpieces extending over 500 years of art history [and] 100 % were sold”. According to Christie’s, “28 % of the works in value were bought Wednesday evening by Asian customers”.
The company controlled by the artemis holding company of the French billionaire François Pinault had announced that the entire amount of sales would be paid to charitable works. Despite his blurring with Bill Gates, his partner in the birth of Microsoft in 1975, the American billionaire Paul Allen, had signed in 2009 his “Giving Pledge”, committing to donate the majority of his fortune.
With these sales and that of a portrait of Marilyn Monroe Shot Sage Blue Marilyn of Andy Warhol left in May for 195 million dollars, the year 2022 should remain as one of the most lucrative in the history of art market.