Microsoft co-founder and former Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen collected artworks as well as sport teams—and Christie's says the sale of his collection will be the biggest art auction in history. The November sale will include 150 works of art spanning a 500-year period, with an estimated value of around $1 billion, the BBC reports. Allen's collection includes masterpieces by Botticelli, Renoir, David Hockney, and Roy Lichtenstein, along with "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire" by French painter Paul Cezanne, which is worth an estimated $100 million.
Allen died of cancer in 2018, when he was 65 years old, and Christie's says the proceeds will go to charity in line with Allen's wishes. The sale is a "major event for the art market and for the art world," Christie's chief executive Guillaume Cerutti tells the New York Times. "The fact that it embraces five centuries of great art—from Botticelli to David Hockney, plus of course the very inspirational figure of Paul Allen, plus the fact that the sale is dedicated to philanthropy—we are really moved by this extraordinary project we are on," he says.
Allen, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009, donated more than $2 billion to causes including education, conservation, and scientific research in his lifetime. He also founded what is now the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, which hosted a 2006 exhibition of his art called "Double Take: From Monet to Lichtenstein," which paired Impressionist works with more modern pieces. His sister, Jody Allen, is the executor of his estate. "Paul truly understood the power and significance of art and was always happy to share that experience with others," she said in a statement. (More Paul Allen stories.)
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