Microsoft co-founder’s collection poised to raise $1bn in ‘largest art auction in history’

Proceeds from sale of 150 works owned by the late billionaire Paul Allen will go to charity

The vast private art collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is expected to fetch a record-breaking $1bn (890m) when it is auctioned next week.

The collection of more than 150 masterpieces includes Georges Seurat's Les Poseuses, Ensemble (petite version) and Paul Cezanne's landscape La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which are both expected to sell for more than $100m, and Gustav Klimt's 1903 work Birch Forest, which has an auctioneer's estimate of $90m.