Paul Allen’s Dicey “Legacy”: From Museum Exposure to Private Ownership? (CORRECTED)

A Cultural Legacy—the title of Seattle Art Museum’s (SAM’s) 2019-2020 one-at-a-time display of three works (a Lucian Freud, a Botticelli and an O’Keeffe) from the late Paul Allen‘s collection—may have reflected some understandable (but erroneous) wishful thinking on the part of the museum’s officials regarding the eventual fate of his holdings. Might their institution have reasonably expected to be the beneficiary of his “legacy”? (Allen died in October 2018 at the age of 65.)

If only wishing for a legacy could make it so. But my takeaway from my recent email exchange with Kimerly Rorschach, former director of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), former president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and now president of the American Federation of Arts, is that the upcoming auction sales of the late Microsoft co-founder’s trove of “more than 150 masterpieces spanning 500 years of art history” (in the words of the Christie’s announcement) will most likely be another episode in the continuing saga of Auction Houses Win, Art Museums Lose—the title of my May 19 post mortem of last spring’s major New York auctions.

SAM had given public prominence to Allen’s treasures not only in “A Cultural Legacy,” but also in Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection—a 2017 show of 39 works that SAM had co-organized (while Allen was still alive) with the Portland Art Museum and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection. (Click the above link for that show to see images of four highlights from it, above which there is is a video featuring more images.)

Although Christie’s has yet to release the list of its Allen consignments, this is the signature work featured in the press release about his estate’s disposals:

Also to be sold from Allen’s collection, as reported by the NY Times‘ Robin Pogrebin is “Small False Start” by Jasper Johns:

As CultureGrrl readers may remember, Paul Allen is not the first major collector courted by SAM whose works headed to the auction block, rather than to the museum’s permanent collection galleries. As I reported here, Rorschach, who was SAM’s director in 2018, at the time of $323.10-million Ebsworth dispersal, issued this sour-grapes statement to sugarcoat the bitterness of an unrealized pledge:

The late Barney A. Ebsworth was a great collector, philanthropist, champion for art, and longtime Seattle Art Museum trustee. We are forever grateful for the generous support he bestowed upon SAM. Over the years, he contributed many works of art to the museum, including four transformative gifts that recently arrived at SAM and are now on view. We look forward to continuing our longstanding relationship with the Ebsworth family.”

As I wrote here:

Ebsworth selections had been highlights of SAM’s inaugural display in its large new double-height special exhibitions gallery that featured recent and promised gifts of modern and contemporary art….SAM got far fewer than the expected 65 Ebsworth paintings and drawings. Barney’s consummated benefactions include: Georgia O’Keeffe, “Music—Pink and Blue I”; Marsden Hartley, “Painting No. 49, Berlin”; Philippe de Champaigne, “The Visitation”; Francisco de Zurbarán, “The Flight Into Egypt”; Jaume Plensa, “Echo.” (The National Gallery, Washington, received six Ebsworth gifts.)

Here’s a key work from his holdings that got away:

How did this pledge renege happen? Then, as now, SAM may have omitted a key step in clinching donation deals: GET IT IN WRITING.

Now auctioneers and art-market pundits are salivating over Paul Allen’s trove, which (in the words of Christie’s press release) is estimated to bring “in excess of $1 billion” during its planned November 2022 dispersal, making it “the largest and most exceptional art auction in history. All sale proceeds will be dedicated to philanthropy, pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes.” The executor of the estate is Jody Allen, Paul’s sister.

It has not yet been disclosed which philanthropies will benefit from this windfall, but Allen’s hometown museum, SAM, which boosted public interest in his collection by displaying key works, does not appear to be getting major art bequests. What’s more, its spokesperson told me (in response to my query) that SAM does not yet know whether it will receive a share of the auction proceeds.

Adding insult to injury, Pablo Schugurensky, Allen’s Seattle-based longtime art advisor, recently said this to Artnet News:

It would be great to see the collection coming to one of Seattle museums, but it’s going to philanthropy so it’s just as good.

JUST AS GOOD?!? Not if you’re a staffer, supporter or visitor of the Seattle Art Museum, which, when I reported on its expansion for this 2007 Wall Street Journal article, was directed by Mimi Gardner Gates, stepmother of Bill Gates, Allen’s fellow co-founder of Microsoft (and himself an art and manuscript collector).

At the very least, Allen and/or his estate might have done for his local museum what David Rockefeller did for the Museum of Modern Art: As I reported here, “Some of the cream of his [Rockefeller’s] collection was skimmed off by the museums to which Rockefeller made important bequests.”

When I asked a SAM spokesman on Monday whether any works from the Allen collection had entered SAM’s permanent collection, the answer was: “No.” And when I asked whether any gifts and/or bequests from Allen’s collection were anticipated, the answer was: “None that we are aware of.” Nor does SAM know whether it is one of the charities to which a portion of the Allen auction proceeds will be given, although “in the past, the Allen Family Foundation has generously supported a number of SAM projects,” in the words of the spokesperson.

What does Rorschach, who retired from SAM in 2019 (succeeded as director by Amada Cruz), think about this Allen fail (reminiscent of the Ebsworth dearth)? Here’s our email interchange:

Rosenbaum: When I had visited the Seattle Art Museum for my Wall Street Journal article about the opening of SAM’s Brad Cloepfil-designed building, I saw Paul Allen’s loaned works and I had the impression that the museum hoped eventually to be given them by gift or bequest. Similarly, I was wondering, when you mounted A Cultural Legacy: A Series of Paintings from the Allen Family Collection, whether you had anticipated (or at least hoped) that Allen’s collection would eventually be given or bequeathed to SAM. In mounting that show, had you anticipated (or at least hoped) that Allen’s collection would eventually be given or bequeathed to SAM?

Rorschach: Regarding both “A Cultural Legacy” and the earlier, bigger Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection [Feb. 16-May 23, 2017 at the Seattle Art Museum; traveled to other venues], I had hoped that they might lead to future gifts from the collection, but I did not know what to expect.

Rosenbaum: Would you have mounted “A Cultural Legacy” if you knew that Allen’s collection would eventually be auctioned at Christie’s?

Rorschach: Hard to say, perhaps not. That said, I knew that there was tremendous community interest in the collection, which as you know is focused on major works by acclaimed artists, and that was a consideration [emphasis added].

Maybe it was “a consideration,” but, to my mind, it was insufficient justification for showing a single-owner collection without any firm commitment from the collector to give or bequeath the bulk of those works to the institution that had put its imprimatur on them, thereby enhancing their financial value.

After we had the above email exchange, I came across these relevant remarks by Rorschach—one of 123 comments reacting to Pogrebin’s NY Times article:

And here’s what Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti had to say (in the auction house’s above-linked press release):

We believe that presenting his collection at auction and giving the opportunity to wider audiences to discover it will be a fitting tribute to celebrate Paul Allen’s vision and legacy.

I love it when mega-auctions are characterized as a way of sharing a collector’s treasures with “wider audiences.” The people who will most likely get to enjoy this bounty are megabucks buyers. The representation of museums among those who can afford to bid at the highest levels, so that they can truly be shared with the public, is slim to nil.

CORRECTION: An earlier version this post incorrectly stated that the “Seeing Nature” was mounted under Mimi Gardner Gate’s directorship. It was mounted during Rorschach’s tenure.

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