Christie’s will be auctioning an Apple-1 computer that was once on Steve Jobs’ desk as part of a broader sale from the collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The auction will also include historic computers and artifacts from Allen’s former Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle. Among the items to be auctioned is an Apple-1 that is estimated to be worth between $500,000 and $800,000 and will be part of a live sale at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York on September 10.
Plans to auction items from Allen’s collection were made public in June after the Living Computers Museum announced its permanent closure, which disappointed fans and supporters. Some hopes were held for locally significant items to remain in the region, potentially for public display. The auction will feature a variety of Microsoft-related items, including early Microsoft memos, programming printouts, and a collection of Popular Electronics magazines that were instrumental in inspiring Allen and Bill Gates to start the company.
Christie’s announced details of the three sales, titled “Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection,” with over 150 items expected to be auctioned. The estate says that proceeds from the auctions will go to charitable causes in line with Allen’s wishes. Two of the sales will be held online, with bidding open from August 23 to September 12. The third sale will be live in New York on September 10 and will feature items such as a DEC PDP-10, early Microsoft memos, and a Compaq Portable 286 used by Allen.
The live sale, “Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from the Paul G. Allen Collection,” will include items such as an archive with letters from notable primatologists in the 1950s and 1960s, a signed letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an original pitchbook for the television series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,” and a four-rotor Enigma Machine from 1941. Other items featured in the auctions include original illustrations from the “Collier’s” series, artwork, and a first-class luncheon menu from the Titanic.
The second online sale, “Over the Horizon: Art of the Future,” will feature artwork and illustrations that helped build public support for the Space Race, including paintings and original illustrations by Chelsey Bonestell and Fred Freeman. An exhibition of items from the auctions will be held at Christie’s New York from September 5 to 9. This is not the first time Christie’s has worked with Allen’s estate, as they successfully auctioned off 155 pieces from Allen’s art collection in November 2022, raising a record $1.62 billion.
Since his death in 2018, Paul Allen’s estate, led by his sister Jody Allen, has been divesting a variety of his projects and investments. This includes assets such as the Cinerama movie theater, the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum, Vulcan Productions, Stratolaunch, the superyacht Octopus, and other investments. The auctions of items from Allen’s estate continue to generate interest and raise substantial funds for charitable causes in line with Allen’s philanthropic vision.
