Christie’s suspends Paris sale of world’s ‘first calculator’ invented in 1642

Christie’s said on Wednesday it was suspending the Paris auction of one of just a handful of examples of the world’s first calculating machine, developed by French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642.

The auction of “La Pascaline” had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but late on Tuesday a Paris court suspended authorisation for export – meaning buyers would not be able to take it abroad.

This example is one of only nine still existing and the only one believed to be in private hands – others are held in museums.

Christie’s had dubbed the box, decorated with ebony, as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”, and it had been expected to fetch between €2 million and €3 million (US$2.3 million to US$3.5 million).

The auction house had described the machine as “nothing less than the first attempt in history to substitute the work of a machine for that of the human mind”.

It said it had halted the sale at the instructions of the piece’s owner, after the Paris administrative court suspended an export authorisation in a provisional ruling.

The sale, part of an auction of the library of late collector Leon Parce, would be suspended pending the final decision by the court, Christie’s said.