A rare Nazi Enigma encryption machine from World War II has been sold for nearly half a million euros after attracting double its expected price.
The sale took place in Paris, France, with Christie’s confirming on 19th November that the device went for EUR 482,600 (GBP 425,400) to an unidentified buyer.
The Enigma machines were used by the Germans for encrypted communication during World War II and were based on keys and complex rotor systems.
The M4 version sold in Paris was a more sophisticated model ordered by German Admiral Karl Doenitz in 1941 for communication with his submarine fleet as the Nazis attempted to blockade Britain.
The device was enclosed in a wooden case and featured a keyboard and four rotors.
Christie’s said it had been previously owned by a French collector.
Another M4 machine, described as the rarest surviving Enigma type, sold for USD 365,000 (GBP 279,200) in New York in 2015.
The Enigma code was cracked by British mathematician Alan Turing and his team under a top-secret programme whose significance only became widely known in the 1990s.
It was later featured in a book by British author Robert Harris and the 2014 Oscar-nominated film ‘The Imitation Game’.
