A handwritten letter by Albert Einstein on the subject of general relativity is heading to auction at Nate D Sanders on January 25.
It’s addressed to Einstein’s great friend and confidant Michel Besso, whose correspondence collection crossed the block in a major sale at Christie’s last year.
Albert Einstein wrote this letter to his friend Michel Besso
This letter was among those featured in the auction.
It made $11,875.
Nate D Sanders expects it to sell for more than $22,000, an expression of the rising demand for Einstein memorabilia that culminated in the sale of a single note gifted to a courier in Japan for $1.5m in October 2017.
The present letter references Einstein’s most famous theorem, something that is likely to increase its value. Furthermore, Einstein letters discussing general relatively are rare at auction.
It reads in part: “...Yesterday I presented a little thing about the Sommerfeld-Epstein formulation of quantum theory before the thinned ranks of our Physical Society. I want to write it up in the next few days.
“L[evi-]Civita wrote a critical paper on gen[eral] rel[ativity].
“I think however that he is wrong...[Friedrich Adler] has a rather sterile rabbinical mind, obstinate...ultra-selfless...A real martyr-type.”
There’s also a hugely rare autograph from US President James Garfield from 1881.
Garfield was only in office six months before he was assassinated, making him one of the trickier presidents for collectors to acquire.
Bidding starts at $7,000.
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