Biggest sale in auction history
Just when it seemed like the high-flying art market couldn't go any higher, paintings and sculptures from the collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen hit $1.5 billion at Christie's New York on Wednesday night, making it the biggest sale in auction history. The first of two Allen sales, it broke a six-month-old record of $922 million set at Sotheby's for art from Harry and Linda Macklowe, who were getting a divorce and had to sell their collection as part of the deal.
A price of $100 million used to be the threshold for joining a small group of auction record holders. However, five lots sold for more than that amount, including Georges Seurat's "Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version)" ($149 million, including fees), Paul Cézanne's "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire" ($138 million), Vincent van Gogh's "Verger avec cyprès" ($117 million), and and Gustav Klimt’s 1903 autumnal “Birch Forest” ($105 million). "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II," which sold for $88 million in 2006, was Klimt's previous auction record. In the same year, Allen bought his Klimt for about $40 million.
People want to put their money in durable goods
Several lots at the auction had a lot of interest, which shows that the top of the art market seems to be unaffected by world events (there were four on the Seurat). Some art experts said that the lack of a potentially market-shaking political upset on Tuesday made it easier for people to spend money on beautiful pictures. The London and New York dealer Nicholas Maclean said, "People want to put their money into hard assets."
Allen died in 2018, so the auction of his art brought a level of excitement that is not often seen in the art world. The usual suspects were in the room, like dealers Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Amalia Dayan, and Joe Nahmad. The owner of Christie's, Francois-Henri Pinault, was also there, and he was sitting in one of the more private skyboxes. The dealer Dominique Lévy said, "When rare masterpieces come on the market, we see collectors working very hard to buy them." "A sale like this doesn't show what the art market is like as a whole. Instead, it shows how much people want to buy very rare works. It is very important to understand the patina of this unique legendary provenance." The sale reached $1 billion when Lot 32, "Femme de Venise III" by Alberto Giacometti, sold for $25 million. It was expected to sell for $15 million to $20 million. The auctioneer did not say anything about this, so no one in the room knew that the art market had just made history.
A quarter of the lots were purchased by people from Asia
About a quarter of the lots, in terms of value, were bought by people from Asia. Gagosian said, "Buyers in Asia are very much alive." "Things are strong when they are rare and good. Right away, the first three lots sold for much more than expected. One of these was "Flatiron" by Edward Steichen, which was taken in 1904 and shows the Flatiron Building in New York. At $12 million, which was four times the high estimate, it set a new record for the artist at auction. It was the second most money ever paid for a photograph, after "Le Violon d'Ingres" by Man Ray, which sold at Christie's last May for $12.4 million.
More than 20,000 people saw the collection before it opened to the public. In midtown, Rockefeller Plaza, there were lines that were as long as two hours. People who like art often go to these previews because they want to see masterworks before many of them go to private collections. Collectors were looking forward to the sale because it was expected to break records and because Allen's collection, which he started in the 1980s, included a wide range of high-quality works. More than 150 pieces of art were brought to Christie's, and on Thursday, 95 of them will be sold in a single day sale. The art dates back 500 years. It ranged from Botticelli's classical "Madonna of the Magnificat" (mid-15th to early 16th century), which sold for $48 million on an estimate of $40 million, to Wayne Thiebaud's whimsical "Café Cart" (2012), which sold for $6 million on an estimate of $3 million to $5 million.
It included "Small False Start," an early abstract painting by Jasper Johns from 1960 that sold for $55 million (the price range was $45 million to $65 million). The blue, red, yellow, and orange piece was worth more than a painting of a flag that Alice Walton bought in 2014 for $36 million. Allan Schwartzman, an art consultant who works with the Allen estate, said, "It tells the story of his relationship to collage." "It's a beautiful thing." The collection had a lot of works with people in them, like "Le Grand Canal à Venise" by Édouard Manet, which is a painterly snapshot of a gondolier paddling, and "The Conversation" by David Hockney, which shows curator Henry Geldzahler and writer Raymond Foye having a tense conversation. Allen's art advisor, David Nash, said that the tech mogul bought paintings with the same passion he had for his other interests, such as sports teams, marine biology, and brain research. "The Seurat, the van Gogh, and the Cézanne are probably paintings that can't be replaced," he said.
His collection was not "disturbing"
At the same time, some art experts said that the sale showed more about Allen's skill as a buyer than about his unique love of art. Adam Lindemann, a dealer and collector, said, "It's like the tech mind. Everything is in great shape, has bright colors, and isn't too disturbing or sexual. It's like how a numbers or computer guy would think about it. Each one is almost perfect." "The collection doesn't say much about him, in my opinion. You can read the whole thing and still have no idea what Paul Allen is like. It's very detailed and well thought out." Schwartzman, the art consultant, saw "someone who had a very personal connection to the works he bought" in the collection.
He also said, "I find it moving that someone who has had such an effect on how the world works today had such a strong and personal reaction to the artist and the hand." Allen was a bit ahead of his time when he started to collect art by women like Agnes Martin, Louise Bourgeois, and Barbara Hepworth. "White Rose with Larkspur No. 1" by Georgia O'Keeffe sold on Wednesday for $27 million, which was more than four times the low estimate of $6 million.
Christie's agreed to pay the Allen Estate a minimum price for the set
Christie's guaranteed the sale of the whole cache, which means that the auction house agreed to pay the Allen estate a minimum price for the whole thing. Christie's then made up for this risk by getting minimum bids from third parties on many of the lots. This means that people agreed to a purchase price ahead of time, making sure they could buy the work if it didn't go over the guarantee. Allen wanted all of the money to go to charity, and that's what happened. His estate hasn't said who got the money, possibly to avoid turning off potential buyers who didn't agree with the charities.
The high prices showed that Allen had good taste and an eye for art that was likely to go up in value. In 2016, he sold a Gerhard Richter painting of an American fighter jet for $25.6 million, which was more than double the $11.2 million he had paid for it ten years earlier. In 2014, he sold a Mark Rothko painting for $56.1 million, which he had bought for $34.2 million in 2007. Amy Cappellazzo, a well-known advisor and former auction manager, said, "He was a buyer at the top of the market who didn't have much competition."
Selena Mattei