麻豆影视

Skip to main content

Art from Microsoft founder Paul Allen sells for $1.5 billion

This undated photo provided by Christie's shows "Small False Start," 1960, by Jasper Johns, encaustic, acrylic and paper collage on fiberboard, from the Paul G. Allen Collection. The painting was one of 60 pieces from the Paul G. Allen collection auctioned by Christie's in New York, on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, bringing $1.5 billion in a single night. (Christie's/Courtesy of the Paul G. Allen Estate via AP, File) This undated photo provided by Christie's shows "Small False Start," 1960, by Jasper Johns, encaustic, acrylic and paper collage on fiberboard, from the Paul G. Allen Collection. The painting was one of 60 pieces from the Paul G. Allen collection auctioned by Christie's in New York, on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, bringing $1.5 billion in a single night. (Christie's/Courtesy of the Paul G. Allen Estate via AP, File)
Share
NEW YORK -

Works by artists including Cezanne, Seurat, and van Gogh sold for a record-breaking $1.5 billion during the first part of Christie's two-day auction of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen's masterpiece-heavy collection.

All 60 of the artworks put up for auction Wednesday night in New York sold, and five paintings sold for prices above $100 million.

Georges Seurat's pointillist "Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version)" sold for $149.2 million, the evening's highest price. The larger version of "Les Poseuses" is at the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.

Christie's experts said that pointillism, a revolutionary technique when it was developed by Seurat and Paul Signac involving dots of colour that combine to form an image, was of particular interest to Allen because of his computer background.

The auction house quoted Allen saying he was "attracted to things like pointillism or a Jasper Johns `numbers' work because they come from breaking something down into its components -- like bytes or numbers, but in a different kind of language."

Other highlights from Wednesday's sale included Paul Cezanne's "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire," which sold for $137.8 million, and van Gogh's landscape "Verger avec cypres," which sold for $117.2 million.

"Never before have more than two paintings exceeded $100 million in a single sale, but tonight, we saw five,' Max Carter, vice chair of 20th and 21st-century art at Christie's, said in a news release.

Eighteen works sold for record prices for the artists, who ranged from the 17th-century Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Younger to the 20th-century photographer Edward Steichen.

All proceeds from the sale will benefit philanthropies chosen by Allen's estate.

Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates, died from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2018. During his lifetime, he donated more than $2 billion to causes including ocean health, homelessness and advancing scientific research.

The previous single-evening auction record of $852.9 million was set at Christie's contemporary art sale in New York in 2014.

The Paul Allen estate sale continued on Thursday.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

A team of tornado experts is heading to Fergus, Ont. after a storm ripped through the area Sunday night.

Why brain aging can vary dramatically between people

Researchers are uncovering deeper insights into how the human brain ages and what factors may be tied to healthier cognitive aging, including exercising, avoiding tobacco, speaking a second language or even playing a musical instrument.

Local Spotlight

For the second year in a row, the 鈥楪ift-a-Family鈥 campaign is hoping to make the holidays happier for children and families in need throughout Barrie.

Some of the most prolific photographers behind CTV Skywatch Pics of the Day use the medium for fun, therapy, and connection.

A young family from Codroy Valley, N.L., is happy to be on land and resting with their newborn daughter, Miley, after an overwhelming, yet exciting experience at sea.

As Connor Nijsse prepared to remove some old drywall during his garage renovation, he feared the worst.

A group of women in Chester, N.S., has been busy on the weekends making quilts 鈥 not for themselves, but for those in need.

A Vancouver artist whose streetside singing led to a chance encounter with one of the world's biggest musicians is encouraging aspiring performers to try their hand at busking.

Ten-thousand hand-knit poppies were taken from the Sanctuary Arts Centre and displayed on the fence surrounding the Dartmouth Cenotaph on Monday.

A Vancouver man is saying goodbye to his nine-to-five and embarking on a road trip from the Canadian Arctic to Antarctica.