Christie's presents Gen One : Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection

This three-part series of sales commemorates groundbreaking scientific and artistic achievements throughout history and celebrates the pioneering minds behind them, featuring works related to notable figures including Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, Chesley Bonestell, Antony Gormley, and many more. Highlights across the three sales range from exceedingly rare vintage computers to items unlocking the depths of the ocean to objects that have seen the farthest corners of space. The series begins with two online sales, Firsts: The History of Computing and Over the Horizon: Art of the Future, both open for bidding August 23 – September 12, 2024. The single live sale of the series, Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from the Paul G. Allen Collection will take place on September 10, 2024 beginning at 12PM ET at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in the heart of Manhattan.

The live sale is replete with treasures including the top lots of the collection: a signed letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin Roosevelt warning him of the scientific discovery that led to the atomic bomb ($4,000,000-6,000,000), and an Apple-1 from the desk of Steve Jobs ($500,000-800,000). An additional highlight from a completely different realm of scientific exploration is an Archive with Letters from Louis Leakey, Jane Goodall, and Dian Fossey on their Work in Primatology in the 1950s & 60s. These three individuals were renowned for the groundbreaking work in this field and their contributions to the understanding of human evolution and behavior were monumental. This lot notably includes examples of Jane Goodall’s very earliest research. The letters are together with related photographs, offprints, casts of discoveries, and an example from Jane Goodall of chimpanzee tools collected in the wild ($40,000-60,000). The sale also features the Original Pitch-Book for The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.Integral in the development of the ocean preservation movement, Cousteau was made a household name after starring in televised documentary series from 1966 – 1982. This example is the pitch book for his first television series. Another key highlight is a fantastic abstracted sculpture by Antony Gormley, Quantum Cloud XI, ($250,000-350,000). Executed in 2000, this is a notable example from the artist’s highly celebrated Quantum cloud series, which explores the relationship between the material and the metaphysical. The work is a brilliant composition of parts simultaneously converging and exploding, realizing human form through mathematical structure and quantum physics—as articulated by physicist Basil Hiley. Additional highlights include the Original and Complete Set of Procedures for America’s First Spacewalk in June 1965 ($60,000-80,000); Four Rotor Enigma Machine from 1941 ($250,000-350,000); and a First Class Luncheon Menu from the Titanic, from the final lunch on the day the ship struck the iceberg ($30,000-50,000).

The online sales present a three-week long window for bidders to acquire among the most important objects exemplifying the history of computing and interplanetary travel. Firsts pays tribute to the modern landscape of technology. A leading highlight is a 1971 DEC PDP-10: KI-10 (estimate: $30,000-50,000) from the family of computers that were the first to support real-time, interactive computing – and the type of computer that was the first that both Allen and Bill Gates ever used. Another exciting highlight from the Firsts sale is a Compaq portable 286 microcomputer from 1985— an early laptop used by Paul Allen ($30,000-50,000). Unlike many portable computers of the era, the Compaq Portable 286 was fully integrated, with its monitor, keyboard, and computing hardware in a single unit. The sale also includes Baxter, a robot made in 2016 by Rethink Robotics, designed to work alongside humans ($3,000-5,000) and an Apple-1 Computer from 1976 ($300,000-500,000).

Over the Horizon presents an opportunity to collect works by brilliant artists imagining space exploration in an entirely new and prophetic way. Chesley Bonestell’s Saturn as Seen from Titan is revolutionary in its viewpoint ($30,000-50,000). Painted circa 1952, the work predates the reality of space travel, yet the viewer is grounded on the surface of another planet. Fifteen years later, a photograph of the Earth taken from its Moon would look notably similar. The sale includes a very significant tranche of original illustration art by both Bonestell and Fred Freeman from the Collier’s series “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” This series, which ran from 1952-1954, was a driving force in selling the Space Race to the American people.

Paul G. Allen lived a life motivated by a love of ideas and making the world a better place, from co-founding Microsoft in 1975 to starting his first charitable foundation in 1988, and from founding the acclaimed Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in 2000 to launching the Allen Institute in 2003, which tackles some of the biggest questions in bioscience.

Allen continued to explore the frontiers of technology and human knowledge even decades after his time at Microsoft. His extensive collection of computing technology started in 1977 with the purchase of a TOAD-1 Systems Corporation machine and extended to historically significant software created on the DEC PDP-10 family of systems. He created the Living Computer Museum in 2012 to house the growing collection of vintage technology with a focus on hands-on experiences. Known also for his diverse collection of art and cultural artifacts, Allen created the Flying Heritage Collection and Combat Armor Museum (now owned and operated by the Wartime History Museum), and he held a deep passion for music and creative expression, the impetus for the Museum of Pop Culture. Founded at the turn of the millennium as Experience Music Project, MoPOP is today recognized as a global destination, showcasing a breathtaking and historic collection of music and popular culture artifacts and memorabilia.

During his lifetime, Allen contributed more than $2.65 billion to philanthropy, supporting a range of important causes such as bioscience, endangered species, ocean health, climate science, and arts and culture. In 2010, he was an early signer of the Giving Pledge, a commitment to contribute the majority of one’s wealth to philanthropy. In 2015, he was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for dedicating his wealth to public good. Allen passed away in October 2018, but the breadth and depth of his generosity and his desire to continue improving the lives of people around the world even after his death will create impact for generations to come.

Main Image: Antony Gormley (B. 1950)   Quantum Cloud XI stainless steel Executed in 2000. Estimate: $250,000-350,000