Rare Apple-1 Heading To Auction Will Be Scanned At Invaluable To Reveal Unique Digital “DNA”

A rare Apple-1 computer, the first personal computer produced by Steve Jobs and Steve “Woz” Wozniak at the fledgling Apple Computer Co. in Palo Alto, CA in 1976, is being offered for sale by RR Auction on Invaluable, the world’s leading online marketplace for fine art, antiques and collectibles.

The “Remarkable Rarities” sale will take place Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. at WeWorks, 200 Portland St., Boston.

To highlight the upcoming sale, the Apple-1 will be scanned at Invaluable with technology created by Artmyn, a Swiss company revolutionizing how art is experienced, promoted and secured online. The scan reveals the Apple-1’s unique digital “DNA” as it heads to auction. The scan and a demonstration of the fully operational Apple-1 will be held Sept. 5 at 11 a.m. at Invaluable’s headquarters, 38 Everett St., Allston. Here is a video of an initial scan.

The Apple-1 being auctioned is one of only 60-70 remaining of the original 200 that were designed and built by Jobs and Wozniak and sold for $666.66 at The Byte Shop in Mt. View, CA – one of the first personal computer shops in the world, said Bobby Livingston, Executive Vice President at RR Auction.

The consigner paid $300 to the original owner, a co-worker who bought it at The Byte Shop, said Livingston. He began learning BASIC and writing small programs and even after outgrowing the system, held on to it, realizing it could one day be a piece of computing history. In 1982, he attempted to sell his Apple-1 to Wozniak for $10,000 – an offer that, fortunately for him, went unanswered, said Livingston.

The record auction price for an Apple-1 is $815,000, established in 2016.

“The Apple-1 was the first in the evolution of products from Apple that would forever change the world we live in,” said Livingston. “It’s fitting that the cutting-edge technology that is being used to scan, capture and identify this historic computer is poised to revolutionize the auction business.”

Corey Cohen, a computer historian and Apple-1 expert who documented the authenticity of this unit and will demonstrate it at the Sept. 5 press availability, said, “This Apple-1 board is one of the few known operational units that has never been modified or had circuit traces cut then repaired. This Apple-1 even includes the original keyboard used by the current owner back in the 1970’s.”

The scanning at Invaluable highlights an exclusive global partnership between Invaluable and Artmyn aimed at improving the online buying experience and increasing transparency and buyer confidence in the online art market. Under the partnership, announced today, Invaluable will offer auction houses exclusively on its marketplace free access to Artmyn’s scanning technology.

“We couldn’t be more excited about the sale of this historic piece of technology,” said Invaluable CEO Rob Weisberg. “The innovative scanning technology we’re showcasing is a giant step towards greater transparency in the art and collectibles market that we believe will increase buyer confidence in the online art market. To showcase it with an Apple-1 is just incredible and fitting.”

Artmyn’s technology scans artworks and objects like the Apple-1 and captures tens of thousands of photographs with different light sources and spectrums, including UV lights. The scanning process generates a 5D interactive file and a short immersive video containing more than 1.5 billion pixels - offering owners, auction houses, consignors and buyers unparalleled views and feelings of texture for each scanned object.

“This allows you to ‘touch with your eyes’ and experience and interact with a digital twin of the Apple-1 as if the original was in your own hands,” said Artmyn co-founder and CEO Alexandre Catsicas.

The scanning process reveals the signature elements of an artwork or object, such as topography, properties of color and levels of reflection, said Catsicas. This video of two oil paintings is an example of what viewers will see.

“This process safely captures specific features – the ‘DNA’ of the piece – and then generates unique digital fingerprints that allow owners and interested buyers to monitor the condition of artworks and objects over time. Scanned artworks will now become unfalsifiable,” added Catsicas.

In the case of the Apple-1, the scan will allow a 5D look at the iconic desktop, offering zeroed-in views of distinguishing details on the top and bottom of the piece.

Weisberg called the Artmyn partnership “an incredible opportunity for our auction house partners to promote their sales in a unique way while also digitally preserving the ‘DNA’ of artwork, which ensures the authenticity and traceability of the pieces.

“It revolutionizes the way art can be experienced online,” he added. “These images will be posted on Invaluable to provide buyers with a new, incredibly detailed immersive experience. All the scanned pieces will be offered for sale exclusively on our global marketplace.”

Under the partnership agreement, Invaluable will offer auction houses that are exclusively on its marketplace access to Artmyn’s scanning technology free of charge.

Among the Artmyn benefits:

• Dramatically Enhanced Authentication – The captured “DNA” of an artwork contributes to the authentication of the piece going forward, increasing buyer confidence and protecting owners and collectors from potential forgeries.
• Increased security and insurance protection - Any damage or modification to the artwork after the first scan will automatically be detected during subsequent scans – a major advantage for security and insurance purposes.
• Unprecedented transparency – The first-ever Biometric Passport, an individualized, highly-secured digital document, will remains with the artwork over its lifetime, giving owners and collectors unprecedented transparency and assurance.
• Personalized digital experience – Collectors can promote, magnify and share their art collections like never before by creating highly secure personalized and interactive videos with audio commentary that will vividly tell the stories of their artwork.

For more information on Invaluable, to view upcoming auctions and shop from galleries and dealers, please visit www.Invaluable.com.

About Invaluable
Invaluable is the world’s leading online marketplace for buying fine art, antiques and collectibles. Working with more than 5,000 of the world’s premier auction houses, dealers and galleries, Invaluable helps buyers from nearly 200 countries connect with the things they love. With best-in-class online bidding technology, along with a fixed-price retail platform, Invaluable provides sellers with e-commerce and marketing solutions, as well as auction management software. Recently called “one of the fastest growing e-commerce sites in the art world” by Blouin ArtInfo, Invaluable has also been recognized by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ and the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® program in both 2015 and 2016. Headquartered in Boston, Invaluable also has offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia. For more information, visit www.invaluable.com or follow us on Twitter at @InvaluableLive.

About RR Auction
Headquartered in Boston’s North End, RR Auction is a globally recognized and trusted source for rare documents, manuscripts, autographs and historic artifacts. Since its inception in 1980, RR has achieved countless record-setting prices in over 425 successful sales, including Truman Capote’s hand-notated manuscript for Breakfast at Tiffany’s for over $300,000, President Kennedy’s 1963 convertible for $318,000, and a pair of Bonnie and Clyde’s guns for over $500,000. Internationally known and frequently featured in all media outlets—with appearances on NBC’s Today Show, CBS This Morning, Fox News, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and the London Times—RR Auction prides itself on selling authentic material, thoroughly examined by in-house experts and third-party authenticators, to uphold the guarantee of authenticity. With a stunning full-color print catalog and a massive online presence, RR Auction’s nearly four decades of business continue to grow, achieving record prices for clients around the world.

About Artmyn
Born at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, ARTMYN develops sophisticated technological tools that revolutionize the way Art is experienced, promoted and secured on screen. Thanks to its new generation of scanners and algorithms, Artmyn’s technology extracts the unique features of an artwork - its “DNA” – under different light sources, including ultra-violet light. This proprietary technology generates interactive 5D images and movies accessible from any mobile device, as well as unfalsifiable digital fingerprints. When acquiring these features unique to each artwork, a first scan will create a fingerprint allowing for any damage or modification to be automatically detected during subsequent scans, hence easing the authentication process. Headquartered in Lausanne, Artmyn also provides a scanning center under free-trade zone at the Geneva Freeport in Switzerland. For more information, visit www.artmyn.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @artmyn.official.

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