The year 2022 has proven to be a highly lucrative year for the art market. The most significant achievement in this regard was the sale of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s art collection for a staggering $1.62 billion. The two-day Christie’s auction in November saw the sale of 155 masterpieces spanning 500 years of art history. The auction set a new record for an art auction, raising over $1.5 billion.
Record-breaking art auction
Christie’s executive director, Guillaume Ceruti, announced that all 155 masterpieces from Paul Allen’s collection had found new owners. The collection included artworks from Sandro Botticelli to David Hockney, with five pieces fetching more than $100 million each. The top five works sold at the auction were Georges Seurat’s Models, Ensemble (Small Canvas) for $149.2 million, Paul Cézanne’s Mount Saint-Victoire for $137.7 million, Vincent van Gogh’s Cypress Orchard for $117.1 million, Paul Gauguin’s Maternity II for $105.7 million, and Gustav Klimt’s Birch Forest for $104.5 million.
Charitable donations
All proceeds from the sale of Paul Allen’s art collection will be donated to charity. The sale was a significant achievement for Christie’s, which announced record receipts of $8.4 billion for 2022. Sotheby’s also announced record receipts of $8 billion.
Harry and Linda Macklowe’s collection was sold in two Sotheby’s auctions, in May and November 2021. The collection fetched $922.2 million, with 30 works selling for $246.1 million in just 90 minutes at the May auction. The collection included works from Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Alberto Giacometti, and Jackson Pollock.
Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait breaks 20th century record
Christie’s also set a new record for the highest-priced work of art of the 20th century at auction. Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, fetched $195 million on May 9, 2022. This broke the previous record held by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled, which sold for $110.5 million in 2017. The Marilyn Monroe portrait was owned by the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation of Zurich, which announced that all proceeds from the auction would be used for charitable purposes.
