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Microsoft co-founder's art collection expected to fetch record $1 billion at New York auction

Microsoft co-founder's art collection expected to fetch record $1 billion at New York auction

Paul Allen's art collection is set to make history.

The art collection of Paul Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft, is expected to fetch $1 billion, as per French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). The tentative value of the collection, consisting of 150 pieces of art from artists such as Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Jasper Johns, was first announced in October by auctioneers. This makes the collection the most expensive ever to go under the hammer. It dwarfs the previous record-maker, the Macklowe collection, which was sold for $922 million only earlier this year. The proceeds from the collection will be donated to charity, as was Allen's will. Allen died at the age of 65 in 2018 of septic shock due to complications arising out of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

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After co-founding Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates and helping it become the largest software company in the world, Allen left the company in 1983 due to health reasons and disagreements with Gates. The company kickstarted the computing revolution.

Despite his departure from Microsoft, Allen remained an active investor in industries such as technology, media, science, and space.

Johanna Flaum, who is the vice-chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art at auctioneers Christie's, had said last month, "I think this is a sale that sort of exhausts superlatives. This is... the most valuable collection ever sold at auction. It's really a once-in-a-generation type of event. The collection is quite wide-ranging, it really makes Paul Allen a unique collector in that sense."

The auction will be held in New York on Wednesday and Thursday (November 9 and 10) at Christie's headquarters in Manhattan.