The creator of the Apple brand’s newly opened product museum in Warsaw aims to tell the story of consumer computing through Apple’s “successes and failures”.

“The world’s largest and most comprehensive Apple collection,” said 56-year-old professional graphic designer and architect Jacek Lupina, passionately trained in Apple products.

Located in Fabryka Norblina, a former red brick factory converted into a shopping and entertainment center in the center of the Polish capital, the Polish Apple Museum displays more than 1,600 items from the famous American company from worldwide auctions.

Near the entrance stands a copy of the Apple 1, the first personal computer to be marketed in 1976 by the brand’s founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

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Originally produced 200 units sold for $666.66 as part of a kit. To assemble it, the user had to add a case, a power supply, a keyboard and a display.

“My passion was for visitors to this museum to see how early it was, how primitive it was, how simple it was: the Apple 1 case was made of wood! It has nothing to do with what we know today,” Lupina told AFP.

To assemble his sample, the collector contacted other experts and used components that have since been used. All this required almost three years of effort.

The motherboard was personally signed by Steve Wozniak during his visit to Poland in 2018.

overwhelming passion

«He analyzed all the sources, the components, he really liked the design. He also showed me the aspects that he wanted to change with Steve Jobs but had no time to change.”

In the great hall, dozens of computers such as Apple II, Lisa, Imac, Powermac, Macbook, Mac Pro and even iPhone, iPod, iPad, user manuals, software and other products from the Apple universe are exhibited.

There are original posters on the walls, including posters of the famous “Think different” (think differently) ad campaign in 1997 with Bob Dylan, Pablo Picasso, Mohamed Ali or Albert Einstein.

Video screens and interactive terminals where the audio guide allows visitors to immerse themselves in the Apple universe.

“The first two years it was kind of a hobby, having a few machines for the pleasure of looking at them, something I couldn’t afford before because it was too expensive for someone from post-communist Europe,” Lupina recalls. .

After a while, objects began to invade his home in the suburbs of Warsaw, first his office and then his living room.

“I sold all the furniture in the room, the table, the chairs, I left only the sofas,” he said with a laugh. In 2017, he opened the first museum that can be visited by appointment at his home.

Now he spends all his free time, sometimes all his nights, looking for auctions in different time zones.

“Sometimes it’s a tough fight, I recently lost an Imac to a collector from the Netherlands,” he recalled.

Today, his passion is costing him all his money. “I have no savings, no pension, only collections.”