
The sale of an ancient arithmetic machine known as the 'Pascaline' has been suspended after a French administrative court blocked its export.
Leading auction house Christie's decided to call off its auction of the Pascaline, which was due to take place on Wednesday 19 November, after the Paris Administrative Court suspended the export authorisation for the calculating machine built in 1642 by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, inventor, philosopher, moralist and theologian.