Original Apple Computer Sells for $3,65,000 at an Auction in New York

A fully operational Apple computer that company co-founder Steve Jobs sold out of his parents’ garage in 1976 for $600 (Rs. 37,200) sold for $365,000 (approximately Rs. 2 crores) at Auction House Christie’s on Thursday.

The price fell shy of Christie’s estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. The Rembrandt Society, the BankGiro Loterij, VSB fund, Mondriaan Fund and others helped fund the purchase.

The original Apple Computer, also known as the Apple-1, was released by the Apple Computer Company in 1976. They were designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. Wozniak’s friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer. It was first introduced at a price of $666.66. It had a MOS 6502 @ 1 MHz CPU and a memory of 4 KB standard expandable to 8 KB or 48 KB.

Jussi Pylkkanen, Global President of Christie’s and the auctioneer for the sale quoted:

It follows the trend of masterpieces achieving outstanding prices

At the same auction, a Bacchic figure, by 17th century artist Adrien de Vries, funded by  Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, with the help of various foundations and private donors, auctioned for $27.9 million (roughly Rs. 174 crores), well in excess of the sculpture’s pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $25 million (roughly Rs. 93 crores to Rs. 156 crores).

One of the expected highlights of the auction, which Christie’s dubbed the Exceptional Sale, was withdrawn at the 11th hour when the estate of Joan Fontaine, who died aged 96 a year ago, pulled her best actress Oscar for the Alfred Hitchcock film “Suspicion” from the sale of her collection.