Stay Curious, Produce Success
By Dave Hoffman, Editor
Here at Fortune’s Folio, we’re always curious about people’s collections. While planning 2023’s Catastrophicon Rock & Roll Horror Convention, I became familiar with the nuance and dedication that goes into building a great collection, as well as the stories that give them value.
That is why I was fascinated to hear about Christie’s upcoming auction of Paul Allen’s collection of historically significant scientific and technology items. The auction house will hold three sales – two online and one live – under the title “Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection.” These auctions are expected to bring in between $7.3 million and $11.3 million.
The collection showcases Allen’s wide-ranging interests, spanning art, science, and technology. According to reporting in Barrons, the auction features approximately 150 items, including items linked to scientific luminaries including Albert Einstein, anthropologist Jane Goodall, astronaut Ed White, and deep sea explorer Jacques Cousteau.
The auction comes on the tails of the closure of Living Computers: Museum + Labs, the South Seattle museum, which held Allen’s collection of landmark computer technology. The museum was known for allowing guests to get a hands-on experience, touching and using the vintage computers.
It’s interesting to note the role of narrative in establishing the value of art and collectibles. In practice, there is nothing more worthless than an old, out of date computer. Years ago a friend, the publisher of a popular record collecting website, recounted having traded a then state-of-the-art computer for a crate full of old records.
“Those records are worth 12 times as much as they were when I made the trade,” he said, explaining how record collecting had been making a comeback. “But that computer is now worthless.”
It’s not the computers themselves that have value, but the story behind them. They give us a peek into the past, the tools used to pioneer the hyper connected world we live in today – one where physical objects are often reduced to images on a screen. The auction features a DEC PDP-10: KI-10, which gave visitors a firsthand look at the tools Allen and his partner Bill Gates used to refine their programming technique at the birth of the revolution they helped lead, as well as a 1976 Apple-1 from the desk of Steve Jobs, Barrons reports. Each artifact is a touch point of the story that brings us from the analog era into the present.
I watched narrative spell out the value pop-culture fans hold for their collectibles when I did customer discovery for the Catastrophicon. While they talk about their love for their favorite franchise, between the lines, their stories are tales of travel, historical research, and detective work. There is a certain passion behind the collections that make them something special.
As Allen’s collection goes to auction, this narrative of human innovation, curiosity, and pursuit of progress will find its parts in the hands of new people, serving as touchpoints for a new story. According to Barrons, the auctions are expected to fetch as much as $11.3M. We can only wonder the value of the touch point to the people who acquire the parts, and the significance of their story.
