<figure id="attachment_3214048" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3214048" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3214048 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/bc60c799-afp__20251119__84ga4nq__v1__midres__filesfranceauctionsciencehistorymathematicspasca_cropped_1.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3214048" class="wp-caption-text">This photograph shows La Pascaline, the first mechanical calculating machine, invented by French polymath Blaise Pascal. (AFP pic)</figcaption></figure>
PARIS: Christie&#8217;s said yesterday it was suspending the Paris auction of one of just a handful of examples of the world&#8217;s first calculating machine, developed by French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642.
The auction of &#8220;La Pascaline&#8221; had been scheduled for this afternoon, but late yesterday a Paris court suspended authorisation for export &#8211; 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 &#8211; others are held in museums.
Christie&#8217;s had dubbed the box, decorated with ebony, as &#8220;the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction&#8221; and it had been expected to fetch €2 million-€3 million.
The auction house had described the machine as &#8220;nothing less than the first attempt in history to substitute the work of a machine for that of the human mind&#8221;.
It said it had halted the sale at the instructions of the piece&#8217;s owner, after the Paris administrative court suspended an export authorisation in a provisional ruling.
&#8220;The sale, part of an auction of the library of late collector Leon Parce, would be suspended pending the final decision by the court,&#8221; Christie&#8217;s said.
&#8220;Pending the final judgment, given the provisional nature of this decision and in accordance with the instructions of its client, Christie&#8217;s is suspending the sale of La Pascaline,&#8221; it told AFP.
Scientists and researchers had urgently appealed to the administrative court to block the potential export of the machine.
They want the instrument to be classified as a &#8220;national treasure&#8221;.
The culture ministry said an export certificate had been issued in May following standard procedures.
&#8220;Two experts &#8211; one from the National Centre of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) and the other from the Louvre Museum &#8211; approved the decision,&#8221; the ministry said.
&#8220;Blaise Pascal was only 19 when he developed the machine to help his father, who was in charge of a court that was tasked with restoring order to tax revenue collections in northern France,&#8221; Christie&#8217;s said.
&#8220;To simplify these tasks, Blaise Pascal designed calculating machines that, for the first time in history, allowed for the mechanisation of mental calculation,&#8221; it said.
The final court decision could take several months.

MatchPoint Times

Christie’s suspends Paris sale of world’s ‘first calculator’

The auction of ‘La Pascaline'” had been scheduled for this afternoon, but a Paris court suspended authorisation for export.

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