Imitation Game code-breaker Alan Turing’s notebooks fetch US$1m at auction
Work by scholar who cracked German second world war codes sold at auction
A handwritten notebook by the second world war code-breaking genius Alan Turing, who was the subject of the 2014 Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game, fetched more than US$1 million (HK$7.75 million) at auction.
The 56-page manuscript was written at the time the mathematician and computer science pioneer was working to decipher the seemingly unbreakable Enigma codes used by the Germans throughout the war. It contains complex mathematical and computer science notations and is believed to be the only extensive Turing manuscript known to exist, Bonhams auctioneers said.
Monday's sale price was US$1,025,000.
The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Turing, won Best Adapted Screenplay at this year's Academy Awards.
Turing's notebook dates from 1942, when he and his team were at Britain's wartime code and cypher school Bletchley Park.
The sale also included a working German Enigma enciphering machine. The three-rotor device, manufactured for the German military in July 1944, sold for US$269,000.