Christie’s two-part sale, Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection consisted of masterworks spanning 500 years of art history from the Renaissance to the cutting edge of contemporary art. Together, the sales accrued a truly astounding $1,622,249,500, making the Paul G. Allen Collection the most valuable private collection of all time.
Part one kicked off at Christie’s New York headquarters on November 9, 2022, and surpassed the $1 billion mark at the 32nd of 60 lots, breaking records across categories.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), The Façade of La Salute, Venice, ca. 1930. Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paperboard, 14½ x 21¼ in., signed lower right: ‘John S. Sargent’. Estimate: $800,000/1.2 million SOLD: $3,660,000
Five paintings achieved prices above $100 million. The works in the sale sold 100 percent by lot with 65 percent of the lots selling above their high estimates.
The sales continued on November 10 with a second auction of 95 works, again selling at 100 percent for a total of $115,863,500.
Pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes, The estate of the late philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, will dedicate all of the estate’s proceeds to philanthropy.
The French fathers of modernism were all center stage but George Seurat was the star of the evening sale. The top lot of the collection was for his 1888 work Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version), which sold for $149,240,000, tripling the record price for the artist after more than five minutes of intense bidding.
Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Nashaquitsa, 1953. Oil on canvas, 22¼ x 27¼ in., signed and dated lower left: ‘Benton 53’. Estimate: $1.5/2.5 million SOLD: $5,580,000
Adding to the historic nature of the sale, 24 works achieved artist records, among them, American artists Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Francis, Barbara Hepworth, Jasper Johns, Alden Mason, Nancy Rubens, Edward Steichen, Mildred Thompson and Andrew Wyeth.
John Singer Sargent’s The Façade of La Salute and Paul Klee’s Bunte Landschaft each set a record for a work on paper, while Joseph Kosuth saw a record for a photograph by the artist.
One of Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic flower paintings, White Rose with Larkspur No. I, attracted a frenzy of bidding before selling in the room for $26,725,000. The 1927 work epitomizes her transformation of one of nature’s most delicate objects into a strong artistic statement.
Day Dream, a luminous 1980 portrait by Wyeth, realized $23,290,000 after a fierce bidding war, more than doubling the artist record. Depicting the artist’s most well-known model, Helga Testorf, Day Dream balances a crisp, monochromatic palette with detailed tempera brushwork pay homage to one of the most fruitful relationships of his career.
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Day Dream, 1980. Tempera on panel. 19 x 27¼ in., signed: lower left. Estimate: $2/3 million SOLD: $23,290,000
The sale continued on November 10 with part two of the collection, whose 95 lots all found buyers, achieving a total of $115,863,500, with 162 percent sold against the low estimate.
Highlights of the day sale include the Alexander Calder’s sculpture Untitled fetching more than four times its high estimate, setting the precedent for the artist’s two other pieces in part two, selling well over their high estimates. Paintings by Sam Francis also exceeded expectations with Red No. 1 garnering $6,780,000 against a low estimate of $2,500,000.
Georgia O’Keeffe, White Rose with Larkspur No. I, 1927. Oil on canvas, 36 x 30” in., signed: initials. Estimate: $6/8 million SOLD: $26,725,000
At the close of the evening sale, Max Carter, Christie’s vice chairman, 20th and 21st century art, notes, “Never before have more than two paintings exceeded $100 million in a single sale, but tonight we saw five.”
“The room tonight was extremely special,” adds Johanna Flaum, also vice chairman, 20th and 21st century art. “We were joined by colleagues from around the world, demonstrating the global demand of this once-in-a-lifetime collection.”
Powered by Froala Editor
