Rare Einstein Papers Containing Early Relativity Calculations Fetch $13 Million At Auction

A rare 54-page manuscript featuring preliminary calculations for Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity sold for about $13 million at auction in Paris Tuesday to an unknown buyer — almost four times more than expected.

It was originally anticipated to fetch $3.5 million.

Auction house Christie’s declined to identify the winning bidder to NBC News.

The papers contain handwritten notes by Einstein and his longtime friend and collaborator Michele Besso from between 1913 and 1914, a year before he shared his theory publicly.

The notations are mostly written in ink, with some in pencil by Besso, and aside from a few tears and other defects the pages are in “fine condition for a working scientific manuscript,” according to Christie’s.

Einstein did not typically preserve his early drafts, and it was Besso who saved the 54 pages.

Einstein’s scientific autographs from the pre-1919 era are rare, and the papers are one of only two surviving manuscripts documenting the early stages of his general theory of relativity, Christie’s said.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“I am exhausted. But the success is glorious,” Einstein said days after presenting his theory in 1915 following years of work.

KEY BACKGROUND

Einstein publicly presented his general theory of relativity for the first time at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin on November 25, 1915. It was a culmination of his “radically new vision of the interplay of space, time, matter, energy and gravity, a feat widely revered as one of humankind’s greatest intellectual achievements,” as Smithsonian magazine put it. The seminal discovery has been an important research tool ever since. Besso and Einstein died a month apart in 1955, 58 years after they first met.

TANGENT

A letter Einstein wrote containing his famous equation for energy and mass (E = mc²) fetched more than $1.2 million at auction in May, three times more than expected. It is one of just four known examples of the calculation in Einstein’s own handwriting still in existence.

FURTHER READING

“Rare Einstein papers set record at Paris auction” (Agence France-Presse)

Rare Einstein manuscript with early calculations for theory of relativity up for auction (NBC News)

“Rare Einstein manuscript that ‘almost miraculously’ survived is expected to fetch millions at Paris auction” (Washington Post)

“Rare Albert Einstein manuscript worth millions up for auction in Paris” (USA Today)

“Einstein handwritten letter with equation fetches $1.2m” (BBC News)

“The Theory of Relativity, Then and Now” (Smithsonian)

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/teakvetenadze/2021/11/23/rare-einstein-papers-containing-early-relativity-calculations-fetch-13-million-at-auction/?sh=27958125580c