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![]() Wim Wenders opens 9/11 photos exhibition in London New sculptures by Thomas Houseago and posthumously cast bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin on view at Gagosian Taliban takeover sparks fear for Afghanistan's heritage Queen Marie-Antoinette's diamonds for sale in Geneva Italy seizes 500 fake Francis Bacon works Priceless historical Dutch artefacts get new lease of life This article originally appeared in The New York Times. ![]() ![]() ∻ack then it was kids quarters, he said, adding, now these kids have credit cards. Years later, Weeks said, he watched as pinball machines began appearing in barcades, bars combined with arcades. ![]() When he was 17, he said, he opened his first arcade. Weeks said that he bought his first pinball machine as a child growing up in Lakewood, California, in Los Angeles County, and that he sold them out of his moms garage. When asked if a collector would actually use the pinball machine after spending five figures, he said: Theyre definitely going to play it. He said that he expected there to be strong interest in the Pirates of the Caribbean pinball game, which was one of very few that were made. Personally Im sad about it, but Im optimistic that the equipment will move to good places, Chris Campbell, the auction companys owner, said Wednesday.Ĭampbell said that the auction, the single largest private collection sale that his company has ever handled, has generated all kinds of buzz. 24-26, is being handled by Captains Auction Warehouse, based in Anaheim, California, which specializes in pinball machines and arcade games. The auction, which will be held this Friday through Sunday and Sept. I didnt have enough money to save it myself, Weeks said of the museum. Finding a new home for the museum proved to be difficult, and a plan to move the museum to Palm Springs about 20 minutes from Banning was derailed because of its cost and expected delays, he said. No coins necessary.īut the museum had been losing money, Weeks, 58, said, and he decided to lease the 18-acre site to a cannabis farm. Most of those visitors paid $80 for an all-day pass or $150 for a weekend pass, which he said allowed visitors to play an unlimited number of games. People would come from all over the world to go to this place.Įven before the pandemic, the museum was open only about nine days a year and mainly hosted events, averaging about 9,000 visitors annually, Weeks said. Its just sadness, Weeks said of the museums demise. The museums founder, John Weeks, said in an interview on Wednesday that he had no choice but to part with his extensive collection of about 1,000 electronic arcade games and 700 pinball machines, including those featuring Star Wars, Superman and Ghostbusters themes, that he had personally acquired over the years. The holy grail of the sale could be a Pirates of the Caribbean collectors edition pinball machine from 2018, associated with the Disney franchise, which the auction house said could fetch up to $35,000. The collection could be worth as much as $7 million, according to the auctioneer handling the sale, which includes some machines more than 60 years old. The auction will be conducted both online and at the museum itself, where in 2015 a Guinness World Record was set for the most people playing pinball simultaneously: 331. Now, the Museum of Pinball in Banning, California, one of the largest museums devoted to pinball machines, is about to do something that once might have seemed inconceivable: It will start on Friday to auction off more than 1,700 arcade games. Inside an unremarkable warehouse near Palm Springs, California, hundreds of pinball machines once beckoned arcade game aficionados from far and wide, their blinking lights and coin slots a throwback to a time long before Xbox.īut then came the coronavirus pandemic, and the game, one that the museums owner said was already a losing proposition because of the economic climate and the cost of real estate and insurance, was over.
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