RTL Today - Record-breaking auction: Luxembourgish photographer's "The Flatiron" part of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's art collection

An art collection is tipped to break the $1 billion barrier at auction for the first time when Christie's sells works belonging to late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen this week. Part of the auction is Luxembourgish photographer Edward Steichen's "The Flatiron" image.

Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen made his fortune with the establishment of the PC operating system with his better-known Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1975.
He amassed a huge art collection which he used to lend to museums before his death in 2018 at the age of 65.

The 150 works, to be sold Wednesday and Thursday at Christie's Manhattan headquarters, trace more than 500 years of art history, from Botticelli and Canaletto to Georgia O'Keeffe and Louise Bourgeois, via Claude Monet, Francis Bacon and Edward Hopper.

His collection features a 1904 image, "The Flatiron" by the famed Luxembourgish photographer Edward Steichen. The photo depicts the iconic New York building of the same nam and was taken in 1904. It is estimated to be worth between 2 and 3 million dollars. However, the newspapers predict that the photo could be sold for a much higher sum.