18 Mar
2024
18 Mar
'24
9:36 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Christian Corti via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 8:03 AM
To: Adam Bradley via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: Christian Corti <cc(a)informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Two IBM 360's available in the UK
On Sat, 16 Mar 2024, Adam Bradley wrote:
non-EU
Some of you may remember that I (Adam) and
another chap (Chris)
rescued two IBM 360/20 systems out of an abandoned building in
Nuremberg back in 2019 and brought them to the UK (our blog is here:
https://www.ibm360.co.uk/).
We have since basically found ourselves unable to effectively progress
the project due to personal & professional commitments. For various
reasons (explained in our latest blog post) we are testing the waters
for making the machines available to the right sort of people.
Sad to hear that.
We (Computermuseum Stuttgart) did place a bid, too. We were a bit
disappointed that instead of going just 200km, it went abroad to a now country (which makes re-importing unattractive). But
then, after we saw
the
pictures of the house and the system, we were somehow
glad that we did not
win ;-) We realised that, first, the overall condition is unknown or bad,
and
second, it is simply not worth more than a couple of
hundred Euros
considering
all the forthcoming costs and time needed to transport
the lot, store and
restore
it etc.
I don't know if History@IBM was interested, though (they have a working
360/20 system). And maybe the Vintage Computing Lab in Munich was
interested, too (they have a large mainframes collection, and also the
last IBM
705, although not complete).
I guess that the UK /360s are now "lost" for any non-profit/non-budget
museum
in the EU.
Why should this be. I don't believe there is any import duty on items for
exhibit in a museum. Any VAT should be on the current value.
Yes there would be the cost of transport, but I am sure that could be crowd
funded or otherwise sorted.
I think the big question is, could it realistically be restored? Who would
actually want to do this if they don't own it and don't have any guaranteed
future rights.
These questions are why many Museums only accept unconditional donations,
but its also why people don't want to donate to museums as the future of the
objects can be uncertain.
Christian
Dave