According to Christie’s auction house, paintings and sculptures from the collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who passed away in 2018, were sold at auction on Wednesday for a record-breaking $1 billion, with records set for pieces by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, and Klimt.
Five paintings joined the elite group of art that sold for over $100 million at auction before the conclusion of the evening, according to Christie’s.
Georges Seurat’s 1888 work Les Poseuses, Ensemble (small version), a celebrated work of pointillism, brought in the most money that night at $149.24 million, according to Christie’s.
La Montagne Sainte-Victoire by French artist Paul Cezanne sold for $137.8 million, nearly doubling the artist’s previous auction record.
Orchard with Cypresses, a painting by Vincent van Gogh, shattered the previous record for the Dutch artist and brought in $117.2 million. Maternity II, a painting by Paul Gauguin from his Tahitian period, brought in $105.7 million. Birch Forest by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold for $104.6 million.
On Thursday, 95 more pieces from Allen’s collection will be auctioned and all of the money, according to the auction house’s announcement, will go to charity.
The Macklowe collection, which bears the names of a wealthy New York couple, was auctioned off for $922 million earlier this year at rival Sotheby’s. Only 60 of the 150 lots were sold on Wednesday, with the remaining ones to be sold on Thursday.
Together with his more well-known Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Allen built his fortune by creating the PC operating system in 1975.
Before he passed away at the age of 65, he had a sizable art collection that he loaned to museums. Due to his health issues and deteriorating ties with Gates, who ran Microsoft until 2000, Allen departed the business in 1983. Despite their bad relationship, Allen joined Gates’ Giving Pledge program, and all auction proceeds would go to philanthropic organizations.