What you need to know
- Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s estate recently indicated it’s closing the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle permanently.
- The estate will auction the rare computing technology and interactive displays, including a DEC PDP-10: KI-10 built in 1971.
- Proceeds from the auction exercise will be channeled to charitable causes.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle, Washington, over a decade ago. Unfortunately, Allen passed away in 2018, and his estate has decided to close the museum.
For context, the museum served as a home and exhibition for unique computing technology and interactive displays, including a Decsystem 2020 mainframe, an Altair microcomputer, and a first-generation Raspberry Pi. Following Allen’s estate to close the museum, its website and social media accounts have already been taken down.
As part of the estate’s briefing, most of the rare items in the museum will be auctioned to interested parties by Christie’s auction company. The auction is themed as “a celebration of first-generation technologies and the pioneering minds behind them.” All proceeds from the auction will be channeled to charity.
Over 150 items will be on sale across three separate auctions. The first auction, Firsts: The History of Computing, will run online through September 12, 2024. Interestingly, the auction will feature a computer that Paul Allen and Bill Gates used before co-founding Microsoft, a DEC PDP-10: KI-10 built in 1971. The device is expected to fetch anything between $30,000 and $50,000.
The news isn’t surprising, as the museum has remained closed since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though two employees maintained and ensured the devices kept running (via GeekWire).
Enthusiasts who sold and donated some of the items to the museum have raised concerns about them being auctioned off and lost with the permanent closure of Living Computers Museum + Labs. Other items from the museum slated for auction are part of Allen’s estate and will be revealed soon.
