Paris court blocks auction of earliest-known calculator

The court blocked La Pascaline, a 400-year-old calculating machine, from being exported from France.

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Auction house Christie's has confirmed it will not proceed with bidding for the machine La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642.

Valuations suggested the machine could fetch €2m to 3m (£1.7m to £2.6m), and Christie's called it the "most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction".

Scientists and researchers made a legal appeal to grant heritage protections to the historic instrument, arguing it should be classified as a "national treasure".

Pascal was just 19 years old when he developed the earliest version of a calculator, Christie's said. There are only nine of these machines still in existence.