Jack Hyslop, science specialist for Christie's, displays a 1958 prototype of a microchip before auction on June 17, 2014 in New York City. The microchip helped inventor Jack Kilby win the Nobel prize and was expected to sell for $1,000,000 - $2,000,000. - Andrew Burton/Getty Images
A major auction house had a big ticket item up for sale earlier this week. It was not a painting by the father of French Impressionism. It was however, a work of art in its own right: The prototype for the world's first integrated circuit. The first microchip, mounted on a piece of glass.
Christie's tried to sell it yesterday; Auctioneers called it, "virtually the birth certificate of the modern computing era." They estimated it would sell for more than a million dollars.
In the end, no one wanted it -- or no one was willing to pay enough for it.
It didn't sell.
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Based in Washington, David Gura is a senior reporter for Marketplace, the public radio business and economics program, and since 2013, he also has been the show’s primary substitute host.
During his tenure at Marketplace, Gura has filed...