The notes were handwritten by Einstein and his colleague Michele Besso in Zurich in 1913-14.
Paris:
Albert Einstein’s handwritten notes for the theory of relativity fetched a record 11.6 million euros ($13 million) at a Paris auction on Tuesday.
The manuscript was valued at about a quarter of the final total, which is the highest ever paid for anything written by the genius scientist.
It contains preparatory work for the physicist’s remarkable achievement, the theory of general relativity, which he published in 1915.
Calling the notes “without a doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever sold at auction,” Christie’s – who handled the sale on behalf of auction house Aguttes – estimated before the auction that it will bring in between two and three million euros. .
Previous records for Einstein’s writings were $2.8 million for a so-called “God letter” in 2018 and $1.56 million in 2017 for a letter on the secret to happiness .
Tuesday’s auctions opened at 1.5 million euros and quickly surpassed auction house estimates.
After a few minutes, the two remaining bidders bid by phone for 200,000 euros.
There is no immediate information regarding the winner’s identity or nationality.
About 100 collectors and viewers turned up for the sale, but all auctions were conducted remotely.
‘Almost like a miracle’
The 54-page document sold Tuesday was handwritten in 1913 and 1914 in Zurich, Switzerland, by Einstein and his colleague and confidant, the Swiss engineer Michele Besso.
Christie’s said it was thanks to Besso that the manuscript was kept for posterity.
Christie’s said it was “almost like a miracle” as the German-born genius himself would have a hard time keeping what he considers a simple working document.
Today, the paper offers “a fascinating trip into the mind of the 20th century’s greatest scientist,” it says.
It discusses his theory of general relativity, which builds on his theory of special relativity from 1905, encapsulated in the famous equation E = mc2.
Einstein died in 1955 at the age of 76, hailed as one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time.
His theory of relativity revolutionized his field by introducing new ways to look at the motion of objects in space and time.
In 1913, Besso and Einstein “attacked one of the problems that had plagued the scientific community for decades: the anomaly of the planet Mercury’s orbit,” Christie’s said.
This early draft contained “certain errors that went unnoticed,” it added.
When Einstein discovered them, he dropped the paper and it was taken away by Besso.
Christie’s adds: “Einstein’s scientific literature from this period and before 1919 is generally extremely rare.
“As one of only two working manuscripts to document the origins of general relativity as we know it, it is an extraordinary witness to Einstein’s work.”
Einstein also made major contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics.
He’s also become a pop culture icon thanks to his dry brushstrokes, signature shaggy hair, mustache, and bushy eyebrows.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
