The blue-chip art collection of the late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen was auctioned off, and the transaction broke all previous records by bringing in more than $1.5 billion, making it the greatest single-owner sale in auction history.
According to a Page Six report, the sale beat out the $922 million raised by bitter exes Harry and Linda Macklowe for their prized collection in May.
At the posthumous sale of Allen’s art, there were works by Seurat, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Klimt that all went for more than $100 million at Christie’s in NYC.
Attendees included Hollywood star Steve Martin and top gallerist Larry Gagosian.
Records were set for a whopping 20 artists.
The highest priced work was a Seurat that sold for $149.2 million to a phone bidder who called into Christie’s Asia chairman Xin Li, ArtNews reported.
Gagosian told the outlet: “The real takeaway for me was that Asian buyers seem to be very much in the game.”
The 1800s Seurat work, “Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version),” went for five times the previous record for the French post-Impressionist.
