One and a half billion dollars. It's hard to imagine such an amount. As for auction sales, this is a record in the world art market. You probably already guessed that we are talking about the collection of Paul Allen, recently "thundered" in all the media.
Just last week, Christie's auction house sold 60 works from a collection owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Among them are many masterpieces – from Botticelli to Seurat. The total amount, which exceeded $1.5 billion, will be sent to charity. This is exactly what Paul Allen, who died in 2018, wanted to do with his collection.
Gustav Klimt. "Birch forest". 1903.
In more detail, the situation is as follows. Five paintings were sold for more than $100 million. There were also works that went under the hammer several times higher than the expected value.
The record-breaking auction began with a 1921 miniature painting by Pablo Picasso called The Four Bathers. The work brought $2.8 million. Like other exhibits in the exhibited collection, this painting has an impeccable provenance: passed from the American collector John Quinn to film director Mike Nichols, and then joined the collection of Paul Allen.
Georges Seurat. Les Poseuses, Ensemble. 1888.
For example, the famous photograph of Edward Steichen from the Flatiron Building in New York sold for $11.8 million, making it the second most expensive photograph ever sold.
But the main trophy of the evening is the cult landscape of Paul Cezanne "Mount Saint-Victoire", for which a record $137.7 million was paid. Allen bought it in May 2001 for $38.5 million, that is, in two decades the price of the picture has risen almost four times.
Paul Allen was interested not only in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. He was also attracted to other eras. For example, Sandro Botticelli's Madonna and Child with Angels from his collection was bought by an anonymous bidder over the phone for $48.4 million.
Paul Cezanne. Mount Sainte-Victoire. 1888–1890
As for contemporary art, Lucian Freud's painting “Large Interior. The Second World War” (1981–1983) brought in a record-breaking $86.2 million for the artist. And Kandinsky’s painting “Dark Brown” from the Bauhaus era found its buyer for $23 million.
Attentiveness to bidding and to the works of art themselves is one of the distinguishing features of experienced collectors. Visiting the section “Painting and graphics. Author's sculpture" on Violity every time I am convinced of this. What do you think about this?
