Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/23/turing_papers_not_sold/
Turing papers could be saved after auction fail
Reserve not met...
Posted in Bootnotes, 23rd November 2010 15:40 GMT
Free whitepaper – Hands on with Hyper-V 3.0 and virtual machine movement
The Turing papers - the almost complete collection of the great codebreaker's writings - failed to reach their reserve price at auction today.
Bidders at Christie's pushed the price up to £240,000, but that was lower than the minimum price set by the seller.
Google had offered $100,000 towards any purchase, and Bletchley Park's fundraising had found another £20,000.
The failure to sell might mean the museum can do a private deal with the seller and save the archive for the nation.
The papers include 15 of his 18 published works and were collected by friend and fellow code-breaker Professor Max Newman.
Any private deal will likely need more money - anyone fancy chucking in another £300,000 or so?
We've left messages with Christie's and will update when we hear more.
Today also sees an Enigma machine and an Apple I go on sale. ®