Google donates $100,000 to bid for Turing's papers – but they fail to hit reserve

BREAKING: Google has donated $100,000 to bring the papers of the UK’s most famous computer scientist, Alan Turing, to the home of Bletchley Park where he worked as a codebreaker

The Second world war papers went under the the hammer today in an auction at Christie’s. Google donated $100,000 (£62,700) towards the bid by Bletchley Park Trust, home to the National Museum of Computing, which has also received donations from individuals via a campaign by freelance tech journalist Gareth Halfacree.

The papers were valued at £500,000, however, although reaching a bid of £240,000 failed to reach their reserve price and could now be the subject of private negotiations between their owner and Bletchley Park.