Unless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd, 2024.
To the world of engineering and technology, Paul Allen is one of the great names of the twentieth century. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the help of childhood friend Bill Gates, he detonated the microcomputer revolution, without which our day-to-day lives would be unrecognisable. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation and amassed a personal wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. As a philanthropist, when he died six years ago he left the worlds of science, technology, education, wildlife conservation and the arts better equipped to face the future. He was also a collector of expensive nerd stuff.
His private technology collection – along with the artworks, manuscripts and memorabilia that go with it – is mind-boggling. It is also one the administrators of Allen’s estate feel is better served being shared with other collectors, and in September 2024 more than a hundred items went under the hammer at Christie’s in a series of three auctions gathered together as Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G Allen Collection.
As Marc Porter of Christie’s explains: “Never before has the market seen a collection of this diversity that so beautifully chronicles the history of human science and technology ingenuity – much less one assembled by a founding father of modern computing.” Here are some of the highlights.
