A 56-page handwritten manuscript penned by British mathematician Alan Turing in 1942 sold at auction for $1,025,000. The bid barely surpassed the low estimate on the work, which auction house Bonhams thought would sell for “at least seven figures.”
“This notebook shines extra light on how, even when he was enmeshed in great world events, he remained committed to free-thinking work in pure mathematics,” read the Bonhams catalog description. Turing’s contemporary fame increased after his life was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game. Turing was a genius whose work as a cryptanalyst during WWII helped crack Nazi Germany’s Enigma code. It would take another Alan Turing to tell you who bought it–Bonhams wouldn’t say.
