Space artifacts and artwork from the collection of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen are hitting the auction block.
The vivid painting of rich colors, circa 1952 per Christie’s, imagines what it might be like to view Saturn and its rings from the planet’s largest moon, Titan. It is estimated to sell for between $30,000 and $50,000.
Bonestell was known as the “Dean of Astronomical Artists,” according to the New Mexico Museum of Space History, as his paintings and images of space inspired many people over the decades.
“Pioneering the Space Frontier No. 8” by Robert McCall is also being sold, along with original illustrations by Bonestell and Fred Freeman from a 1950s series that ran in Collier’s magazine called “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!”
Also up for sale is a spacewalk checklist from Gemini IV that was flown in space and annotated during the June 1965 mission.
The documents are part of “Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from The Paul G. Allen Collection,” one of the three parts of the auction. “Firsts: The History of Computing from The Paul G. Allen Collection” is the other part.
Both “Over the Horizon” and “Firsts” are online-only auctions with bidding ending Sept. 12. “Pushing Boundaries” items will be auctioned live at Christie’s in New York starting Sept. 10.
The space items are just part of what will be sold during the auction as up for grabs are other memorable, unique and fascinating artifacts from over the years.
Estimated to go between $4 million and $6 million is a letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt alerting him that a scientific discovery had been made that could turn uranium into an atomic bomb. The two-page letter is dated Aug. 2, 1939.
An Apple-1 computer used by Steve Jobs and a menu from the Titanic are also among the items up for sale.
Allen co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend, Bill Gates, in 1975. He died in 2018. A noted philanthropist during his life, Allen’s giving ways have continued with the auctions of his personal items. All proceeds from the auction will be given to philanthropy, Christie’s said.
The first auction of items in Allen’s collection in 2022 was the biggest art sale in history with a total of more than $1.5 billion.
