Cezanne, Seurat works headline $1 bln sale from late Microsoft co-founder’s estate

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Work by Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat and Lucian Freud will go underneath the hammer subsequent month in a sale of artworks from the property of late Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen that’s anticipated to boost greater than $1 billion for philanthropic causes.

Described as “the sale of this century” by public sale home Christie’s, the gathering of greater than 150 items spans 500 years of artwork historical past from Sandro Botticelli to David Hockney.

The star points of interest are Cezanne’s “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” and Seurat’s “Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite Model)”, which carry value estimates of in extra of $120 million and $100 million respectively.

Christie’s World President Jussi Pylkkanen stated he anticipated general proceeds “properly in extra of $1 billion.”

Allen “was a person who actually understood the artworks and their particular person significance,” Pylkkanen informed Reuters on Friday at a media preview in London, the place among the works are on public show for a couple of days.

Allen, who along with faculty pal Invoice Gates began Microsoft in 1975 earlier than leaving the software program firm a number of years later, died in 2018, aged 65.

Different highlights from his assortment embrace Francis Bacon’s “Three Research for Self-Portrait” triptych with an estimate of $25 million, Freud’s “Giant Inside, W11 (after Watteau)” portray with a price ticket of $75 million and Botticelli’s “Madonna of the Magnificat”, which may fetch greater than $40 million.

Hockney’s “Queen Anne’s Lace Close to Kilham” has a value estimate of $8 million-$12 million and Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Femme de Venise III” $15 million-$20 million.

The gathering will probably be bought in two elements in New York on Nov. 9-10 .

Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; modifying by John Stonestreet

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