The $1.6B sale of Paul Allen’s art collection looms over Seattle

A variety of Allen ventures have gone darkish prior to now few years, together with the Cinerama, the Residing Laptop Museum and the Flying Heritage & Fight Armor Museum at Paine Area in Everett. Vulcan, the umbrella firm for a lot of of Allen’s nonprofit and for-profit ventures, closed and laid off its whole “Arts + Leisure” and film-production divisions in 2020, rendering the way forward for the Seattle Artwork Truthful and Cinerama unsure. (Vulcan’s actual property arm continues to dedicate 0.5% of building prices towards buying and commissioning artwork for the outside and inside of its developments.) In 2019, Paul Allen Household Basis donations to native arts teams decreased by almost 80%, from a complete of $225,000 to $50,000; the quantity ticked up barely in 2020, the final yr for which monetary particulars can be found. 

As was the case when Allen was alive, a lot stays shrouded in thriller and mired in NDAs. “Allen is understood for his nondisclosure agreements; his staff ought to have ‘No remark’ tattooed on their foreheads, to save lots of journalists time,” artwork critic Blake Gopnik as soon as wrote. One former worker, who requested to stay nameless, described Vulcan staff as an “elite group of troopers” who tightly shut ranks as soon as a staffer leaves the fold. 

Sealed lips apart, right here’s what we all know: In 2010, Allen pledged to bequeath nearly all of his wealth to philanthropy. (Throughout his lifetime, Allen gave away greater than $2 billion, in keeping with the Chronicle of Philanthropy.) Tasked with this mammoth enterprise is his sister Jody Allen, trustee and executor of his property, who’s certain by her brother’s needs as set out within the belief.

“Every thing modified when Paul died, and he left directions for the way forward for his belongings and named his sister Jody as trustee of the Paul G. Allen Belief and executor of his property,” a Vulcan spokesperson wrote in an electronic mail. “As such, she is obligated to hold out his needs, which can take time given the scale and complexity of the property.” 

Vulcan and Jody have stored their playing cards near their chests, however it’s clear the property has been shedding a lot of its holdings: a bit of undeveloped land in Beverly Hills with ocean view (bought by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt; $65 million). Two residences on New York’s Higher East Facet ($101 million). A 4,000-acre Teton Ridge Ranch in Idaho ($35 million). A cluster of Mercer Island properties ($67.1 million). A pod of Allen’s superyachts, together with the 300-foot lengthy Tatoosh ($89.4 million) and the 414-foot Octopus. Allen’s sports activities groups, the Portland Path Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, will doubtless be offered sooner or later sooner or later, although Jody Allen has mentioned in a current assertion that “estates of this measurement and complexity can take 10 to twenty years to wind down. There isn’t a pre-ordained timeline by which the groups have to be offered.”

Right here in Seattle, the uncertainty of his arts legacy is encapsulated by the cultural buildings at the moment sitting in limbo as unused actual property.