| GNU Head Drawing Fetches $40K |
| Written by Sue Gee |
| Friday, 28 March 2025 |
|
Eighteen items of FSF memorabilia that used to adorn the organization's offices were auctioned of last weekend at the culmination of an online auction. The highest bid, as anticipated, was for the iconic GNU Head portrait, which had a hammer price of $40,000. As reported in FSF Turns 40 and Auctions Off Original GNU the auction formed part of the 40th Anniversary of the Free Software Foundation, the organization founded in 1985 to: promote users’ right to use, copy, modify, study, and redistribute computer programs. FSF achieves this by promoting the development and use of “free as in freedom” software, like the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. The motivation for the auction, as explained by Zoë Kooyman, executive director at FSF, was to ensure that cherished objects that had adorned the walls of its offices could be given suitable homes. We no longer have an office to give these items a nice space, so what better celebration event than to go through some of our memorabilia. ...We went through all the items we had in the offices and discussed where each should go. Having given some items some to friends of the FSF to take care, it was decided to auction off some of the remainder, including the medal awarded to founder FSF Richard Stallman when he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, that had had pride of place in the lobby of the FSF office for years. There was also an Amiga 3000UX that had been utilized in the FSF’s old office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in GNU’s early days and this Dynamic Duo signed poster print depicting GNU and Linux.
The highlight of the auction, as pointed out in our previous report, was the original GNU poster, drawn by Etienne Suvasa, the blueprint for the iconic GNU logo that is ubiquitous in the free software world. Kooyman reported that it achieved the highest bid in the auction, $40,000, while the most contested memorabilia were the Dynamic Duo signed poster print and the Amiga 3000UX. She also told Larry Cafiero of the Foss Force that although the winning bidders came from many different countries, among them Mexico, Poland, France, China, Germany, and the United States they included long-standing free software community members which is exactly what FSF had hoped for commenting: "we’re grateful to see the memorabilia in good hands". Kooyman continued: “we’re also happy to report that the GNU Head and the Internet Hall of Fame medal will stay together. Several of the winners declared that they intend to display the memorabilia exactly as they were displayed at the FSF’s office at Franklin Street.”
The FSF 40 celebrations are set to continue in May with the FSF organizing gatherings around free software with in-person community meetings to bring people all over the world together and celebrate 40 years of its commitment to software freedom. More InformationAuction With GNU’s Original Gnu Kicks Off FSF’s 40th Anniversary Events Related ArticlesFSF Turns 40 and Auctions Off Original GNU To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. 
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 28 March 2025 ) |
