A rare example of history's first working computing machine looks set to survive France after Christie's withdrew it from auction pending a final decision from a Paris court on whether it could be exported.
La Pascaline, designed by French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642 when he was just 19 years old and billed as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”, was expected to fetch more than €2 million (£1.8 million).
However, on Wednesday the auction house removed the ebony-inlaid instrument from sale. Paris The administrative court, responding to an urgent call from scientists and researchers, temporarily suspended the export permit late Tuesday.
“Given its historical and scientific value, La Pascaline is likely to be classified as a 'national treasure'… which prevents the issuance of an export certificate,” the court said, adding that its preliminary ruling “bars its departure from the country.”
Christie's said it was suspending the sale, part of an auction of the library of the late collector Leon Parse, in light of the court's decision, pending a final decision – which could take several months – and “in accordance with our client's instructions.”
In private hands since 1942, the instrument is one of only eight genuine pascalines in existence. Christie's described the machines as “nothing less than the first attempt in history to replace the work of the human mind with the work of a machine.”
Pascal developed the tools in the first attempt to “mechanize mental calculation” to simplify the work of his father, who ran a court tasked with bringing order to tax revenue collection in northern France, Christie's said.
The philosopher developed several models, each using different units for a specific purpose, such as calculating decimals, commercial transactions, or taxes. For surveyors, calculations are made in units including feet, inches, and fathoms.
A group of eminent scientists and researchers, including 2021 Nobel Prize winner in physics Giorgio Parisi, last week asked an administrative court to block the potential export of La Pascalina, arguing that it should be classified as a “national treasure” and left in France.
La Pascaline was “the origin of modern computing” and made France “the cradle of computing adventure: a revolution that changed our understanding of the world,” they said in passionate article published by Le Monde.
They said it was “one of the key jewels of France's intellectual and technological heritage”, accusing the state of making a “stunning error” in granting an export permit to Christie's instead of giving French institutions time to apply.
“What a sad admission of lack of interest in our scientific heritage,” the scientists wrote. “What a misunderstanding of Pascal, an engineer, a mathematician, a philosopher, a writer, a personality like no other, whose 400th birthday we celebrated in 2023.”
The fact that five Pascalines were already in French public collections (the other two are in Germany) does not detract from this, they say, since they all have their own characteristics and this one was little known to the scientific community.
“It is vital that it enters a public collection so that it can be studied,” they added, describing La Pascalina as “a powerful symbol of the unique union of history, science and technology” that reflects “a philosophy of learning that honors France.”
The Ministry of Culture said the export certificate was issued in May last year in accordance with standard procedures and two experts – one from the National Center for Arts and Crafts and the other from the Louvre – approved the decision.
