art collecting

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s estate made auction history on Wednesday when a group of 60 artworks from his estate sold for $1.5 billion, smashing the record for priciest collection ever sold at auction.Lush landscapes and rare examples by artists like Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Sandro Botticelli and Jasper Johns anchored a sale at Christie’s in New York that reaffirmed the depth of the trophy-hunting art market at a time of broader economic uncertainty.…

On Nov. 9-10, Christie’s New York will auction off the art collection of Paul Allen, the late Microsoft co-founder. With more than 150 items, including paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne and Seurat, the sale is expected to fetch some $1 billion. Allen’s interest in art was well known, but less attention has been paid to another of his passions: tracking down and documenting World War II ships sunk in action. Through his umbrella company Vulcan, Allen funded the…

A sale of more than 1,600 items belonging to beloved actress Betty White brought in more than $4 million over the weekend, surpassing auctioneers’ expectations. Julien’s Auctions, the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based auction house that organized the estate sale, anticipated it would garner between $400,000 to $600,000, based on conservative estimates. But some items—including Ms. White’s “The Golden Girls” director’s chair and some of her signed…

A foundation for CBS founder William Paley plans to auction off a trove of masterpieces long lent to New York’s Museum of Modern Art for at least $70 million this fall to expand the museum’s digital footprint.The paintings and sculptures—by artists including Picasso, Renoir and Rodin—have been in MoMA’s care since Mr. Paley died in 1990. On Tuesday, his namesake foundation confirmed it had enlisted Sotheby’s to auction off 29 of his 81 pieces at MoMA. Most of the proceeds are earmarked to expand the museum’s digital…

A 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider sold for $22 million Saturday at an RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey, Calif., as collectors race to buy cars priced like Picassos.The cherry-red race car was the closely watched star of Monterey Car Week, a series of nearly $500 million in glitzy car auctions that coincide with a car competition known as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Collectively, the weekend serves as the equivalent of the Kentucky Derby for car aficionados, with events running through Sunday. The sale comes as…

Boutique auctioneer Phillips sold a 16-foot-wide, red-and-peach painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat for $85 million in New York on Wednesday.  Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa put the untitled 1982 painting up for sale, and an Asian telephone bidder represented by a Phillips representative based in Taipei won it after a four-minute competition. The sale didn’t break the $110.5 million record for a Basquiat, held by an untitled blue work from 1982 that Mr.…

A group of 65 artworks totaling $922 million and amassed over the past half-century by New York real-estate developer Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife, Linda Macklowe, can now claim bragging rights as the priciest collection ever sold in auction history.Colorful, wall-power paintings by midcentury masters like Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly triumphed across a pair of evening sales at Sotheby’s in New York: an initial, $676 million sale held in November, and Monday’s $246 million follow-up. This second and final…