An original Pac-Man arcade cabinet. Astronaut spacesuits. Vintage computers that take up entire rooms. And a letter penned by Albert Einstein that is considered one of the most significant correspondence of the 20th century. Those are among the latest treasures to be auctioned off from the late Paul Allen’s estate.
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“Never before has the market seen a collection of this diversity that so beautifully chronicles the history of human science and technological ingenuity – much less one assembled by a founding father of modern computing,” Christie’s America Chairman Marc Porter said in a statement. “It is a testament to the uniqueness and importance of these objects that one of the greatest innovators of our day collected, preserved, and in dozens of cases, restored them, while both drawing his own inspiration from them and sharing many of them publicly.”
There are three separate auctions showcasing a collection of treasures that Allen amassed during his life: “Firsts: The History of Computing from the Paul G. Allen Collection,” “Over the Horizon: Art of the Future from the Paul G. Allen Collection,” and “Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from the Paul G. Allen Collection.”
The series of auctions marks the latest effort to shed portions of Allen’s massive collections. While he was widely known as a co-founder of Microsoft, Allen spent much of his success on collecting items of historical significance — art, technology, pop culture, and more. He transformed part of this collection into the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) and the Living Computers Museum and Labs.
After Allen died in 2018, corners of his estate were slowly sold off. Seattle’s Cinerama movie theater, owned by Allen, was shuttered in 2020, and was eventually sold to the Seattle International Film Festival in 2023. Christie’s previously took on a portion of Allen’s private art collection in 2022, which collectively sold for $1.5 billion.
Seattleites, and the general geek community, may recognize many of the current auction items from the Living Computers Museum. The museum opened in 2012, but was shut down in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and never reopened.
What’s featured in the auction?
“Firsts” and “Over the Horizon” are online auctions that kick off on Aug. 23 and run through Sept. 12. “Pushing Boundaries,” however, is a live auction scheduled for Sept. 10.
“Firsts” features items that mark significant moments in computer and tech history. For example, there is a Tate’s arithmometer made in 1892 (an entirely manual calculator). There are computers ranging from large to small, such as a 1959 IBM 7090 mainframe — a computer that takes up an entire room. Then there’s a collection of microcomputers from the ’70s and ’80s (today, we would call them something like, “really large and heavy computers”). There are also coding printouts, early Microsoft company memos, a drone built by Vulcan technologies, and a pair of 2018 Puma RS Computer shoes.
“Over the Horizon” is largely a 19th and 20th century sci-fi arts auction. It features paintings of space travel and visions of humanity’s technological future — images fit for a mid-century sci-fi magazine anthology.
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The live auction, “Pushing Boundaries,” is an eclectic blend of the two online auctions — some art, some tech, some history — but features work that is clearly the high-end of the spectrum. There are 1960s astronaut spacesuits estimated to sell for between $10,000 and $150,000. Also, an original 1980 Pac-Man arcade cabinet that could sell for $3,000 and a 1975 Atari Pong home console valued at $3,000 to $5,000. A 49,000-year-old meteorite could go for up to $150,000. The 1966 pitchbook for “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” is valued at up to $15,000.
There is also a letter written by Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning him that the Germans have found a way to get energy from uranium, which has the potential to create “extremely powerful bombs.” Only two versions of this letter exist, the other being in the FDR Presidential Library. It is estimated to sell for between $4-6 million.