Worth billions: the most extraordinary art auction in history

After the eyelid opens, the pupil dilates for a split second. It looks at the Space Needle, Seattle's most famous building, a Steinway grand piano, a computer center, a well-stocked library, an old computer into which someone is inserting a floppy disk, a rocket rising. They had been visionaries, says an off-screen voice that audibly accompanies the image film for the largely announced auction at Christie's.

Although he was the co-founder of Microsoft, he enjoyed less international fame than his colleague Bill Gates. Paul G. Allen maintained an art collection worth billions: Cezanne, Hockney, Picasso, Manet, Monet, Richter – the list of top-class artists is never-ending. The collection comprises more than 150 works from a good 500 years of art history. Christie's now plans to auction them off on November 9 and 10 at Rockefeller Center under the title Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection. From October 29 to November 8, interested parties were allowed to view the works there in person.

The auction house is letting the whole world know in advance that the art auction »is poised to be the largest and most exceptional in history, valued in excess of $1 billion.« The proceeds go to philanthropy, as Allen, who died in 2018, had wished for his estate.

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