The $1.5 billion art collection - a new record for a single-session, single-owner sale

If you've ever want to see what an art collection worth $1.5 billion looks like, you can review images on the Christies website of the collection of the late Paul Allen - the co-founder of Microsoft.

It's a truly amazing collection and well worth drooling over. I've seen a number of the artworks before.

60 lots were sold in the evening sale of Part I of the Sale last night - which set a new record for a single-session, single-owner sale

On 9 November in New York, Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection kicked off with Part I, which surpassed the $1 billion mark at the 32nd lot and broke records across categories. The evening saw 60 extraordinary works achieve a total of $1,506,386,000, establishing the Allen collection as the most valuable private collection in history. Five paintings achieved prices above $100 million. Overview

Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection

The e-version of the Christies Catalogue Cover for the Sale of
The Paul G Allen Collection

This is when I find out the name behind the private art collection which lent some of the most famous paintings I've seen in art exhibitions I've visited. Sometimes the collections announce the name of the owner and sometimes they don't - and I don't believe I've ever seen his name on any of the labels I read assiduously! But I could be wrong.....

These are links to:

• the video of Part I of the sale
• browse all lots - wait a while if you just see plain coloured rectangles to start with - the images will appear
• you can organise by artists you like by checking the boxes of the artists listed on the left of the screen
• Results for some of the LOTS sold yesterday in Part I of the Sale
• These are the LOTS being sold today in Part II of the Sale - which you can watch LIVE right now
• This is the e-catalogue on Issuu
• these are different stories about various aspects of the Collection

STORIES from the Paul G Allen Collection

• Tour the Exhibition of the Collection ONLINE - prior to the auction. This is the Gallery Guide
• VIEW the Timeline of the Collection

All of the lots came to market backed by financial guarantees, either secured by so-called third party guarantees or those backed by Christie’s. In that insured sense, the evening qualified as a “white glove” sale, with 100% of the incredible bounty sold. Twenty artists’ auction records were broken and five works sold for over $100m, including fees, a feat in itself.

The Art Newspaper

PS The review I originally planned for today has been usurped partly by this sale and partly due to needing to provide some family support...... It will now be published tomorrow.