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Space

Science

Robert Z. Pearlman

Microsoft co-founder's space art, artifacts to be sold by Christie's

Christie Paul G Allen Ed White Paul Allen NASA Gemini collectSPACEcom Robert McCall

A silver flight suit without a helmet is seen against a backdrop of red rocks in front of a blue sky, with a large ringed planet hanging large in it.

Visions of humanity's future in space and historic spaceflight artifacts are heading for auction from the estate of Paul G. Allen.

Christie's on Thursday (Aug. 15) released the catalogs for three upcoming sales devoted to Allen's sprawling collection of "groundbreaking scientific and artistic achievements throughout history." The "Gen One: Innovations" auctions include a live "Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity" sale in New York on Sept. 10 and two online auctions themed to the history of computing and the art of the future that are open for bidding through the same date.

"This is a collection that was assembled to illustrate the inspiring nature of scientific exploration and achievement that were such a part of Paul Allen's remarkable life," Christina Geiger, head of Christie's rare books and manuscripts department, said in a statement provided to collectSPACE.com. "The works of art and objects related to space are emblematic of the collection, since they put us in touch with the very boundaries of human experience."

Allen, who died in 2018, is perhaps best known for co-founding the Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates in 1975. During his lifetime, he also expressed his interest in space and exploration by investing in projects such as Stratolaunch, which developed the world's largest operating aircraft originally intended to support an air-launched space transportation system, and SpaceShipOne, the first crewed private space plane that claimed the Ansari X Prize in 2004.

Between the three upcoming sales, more than 50 of the lots offer art, memorabilia and artifacts related to space.

The outer layer of a Gemini spacesuit that astronaut Ed White wore while training to become the first American to walk in space is among the space artifacts from Paul G. Allen's estate that Christie's will offer at auction in New York City on Sept. 10, 2024. (Image credit: Christie's)

Have spacesuit (layer), will EVA

Among the featured lots in the "Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity" live auction are part of a spacesuit and the cue cards used by the first American to walk in space.

Astronaut Edward H. White II wore the offered silvery spacesuit cover-layer for his NASA portrait taken on Sept. 10, 1964. Nine months later, while wearing a similar garment but with a white Nomex outer layer, White exited the Gemini 4 spacecraft and conducted a 20-minute extravehicular activity (EVA).

Although not a complete suit, the unflown cover layer retains its original NASA "meatball" patch and its "E.H. White, II" name tag. An internal label identifies the garment as having been made by the David Clark Co. and that it was sized for White in January 1964.

White may have also worn the cover layer for part of his training at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (today, Johnson Space Center) in Houston. According to Christie's, Allen bought the garment in 1991 from the estate of an area auto mechanic who befriended the Mercury and Gemini astronauts through his work on their Corvettes.

Christie's expects White's spacesuit cover layer will sell for $80,000 to $120,000.

Astronaut Ed White's NASA portrait taken in January 1964 shows him wearing a Gemini spacesuit with a silverly outer layer. When he launched on Gemini 4, he wore a white Nomex-cover layer. (Image credit: NASA)

Allen also owned the original and complete set of procedures that White followed to perform his June 3, 1965 spacewalk. Certified by White's crewmate, Jim McDivitt, as "flown on Gemini IV for the first USA EVA," the 13-page checklist on seven 3.5-by-8-inch (9 by 20 centimeters) cue cards includes notes written in pencil during the flight.

The instructions detail the steps that McDivitt and White followed to prepare for the spacewalk, including checking the integrity of both of their spacesuits, as the Gemini spacecraft did not have a separate airlock. The cards also outline what the astronauts were to do when White returned to the capsule, a moment he famously described as "the saddest moment of my life."

The full set of cards, held together by a single ring binding, was acquired by Allen at a 2015 auction for $47,500. Christie's estimates that the checklists will now sell for $60,000 to $80,000.

The original, flown cue cards providing the steps to perform the first American spacewalk are part of Christie's upcoming Gen One: Innovations auction, offering the estate of Paul G. Allen. (Image credit: Christie's)

Space-flights of fancy

The "Over the Horizon: Art of the Future from the Paul G. Allen Collection" online sale presents a three-week window for bidders to vie over paintings and other art works that captured space exploration from new and prophetic perspectives.

The auction includes numerous original illustrations by artists Chesley Bonestell and Fred Freeman from the Collier's magazine series "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" which ran from 1952 to 1954 and is credited with selling the U.S. public on the country's burgeoning efforts to leave Earth.

Allen's collection also included 14 illustrations by Freeman for German rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun's 1960 book "First Men to the Moon" and a near copy of "Saturn as Seen from Titan," a circa-1952 painting by Bonestell that replicated what is considered to be his most iconic work, a piece that has been called the "most famous astronomical painting ever created." (The original 1944 painting is in the collection of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.)

Christie's estimates the Bonestell painting will sell for $30,000 to $50,000.