Artwork from Microsoft founder Paul Allen’s collection fetches $1.6 billion

Major artworks owned by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen went for big bucks at Christie’s two-day auction.

Works by artists including Cézanne, Seurat, and Van Gogh are included.

fetch auction At a record 1.6 billion dollars.

All 155 artworks on display were sold at auction Wednesday and Thursday in New York, and five paintings have sold for more than $100 million.

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“Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Small Edition)” by Georges Seurat sold for $149.2 million, the highest price on Wednesday night.

Christie’s experts said pointillism, a technique developed by Seurat and Paul Signac that involves dots of color that combine to form an image, was of particular interest to Allen because computer background.

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, died of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2018. (Reuters/Richard Clement/Reuters Photo)

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Other highlights from Wednesday’s sale included Paul Cézanne’s “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire,” which sold for $137.8 million, and Van Gogh’s landscape “Verger avec cyprès,” which sold for $117.2 million.

“La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cézanne, oil on canvas from the Paul G. Allen collection. ((Christie’s / Courtesy of Paul G. Allen Estate via AP, File) / AP Newsroom)

Sales on Thursday topped Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen’s sculpture “Eraser’s Typewriter, Scale X,” which grossed $8.4 million.

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All proceeds will benefit Selected Charities Owned by Allen.

Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with childhood friend Bill Gates, died of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2018.

The Associated Press contributed to this report