Auction in Paris: Einstein manuscript should bring three million euros

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Manuscript by Albert Einstein and Michele Basso (from 1913 and 1914)

Photo: Christie's

On the way to general relativity, Albert Einstein devoted himself to an anomaly - the fact that Mercury's orbit is constantly changing.

This so-called perihelion caused astronomers to find explanations.

Einstein's calculations provided explanations.

The auction houses Christie's and Aguttes are now offering his rare handwritten notes on the subject for sale.

The manuscript is to be auctioned in Paris on November 23rd.

The estimated value is two to three million euros.

It is "without a doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript that has ever been offered at auction," according to the organizers.

The treatise has 54 pages, of which Einstein wrote 26 and his Swiss friend and colleague Michele Basso wrote 25.

The scientists wrote three more pages together between June 1913 and 1914.

The calculations show several deletions and corrections.

Basso had taken the manuscript with him to Zurich, which is why it was preserved.

"Thanks to him, we're almost miraculously in possession of the manuscript," said Christie's auction house.

"Einstein probably wouldn't have bothered to keep something that he considered a working document."

The records are one of only two documents on the genesis of the theory of relativity.

There is also a notebook from 1912 and 1913 that is in the possession of the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Einstein's writings from this period, generally before 1919, are very rare," said Adrien Legendre of Christie's.

"They provide a remarkable insight into Einstein's work and make it possible to dive into the mind of the greatest scientist of the 20th century."

Back in May, a handwritten letter from the scientist with his famous formula E = mc² had been auctioned for more than $ 1.2 million - a result that was three times as high as expected, as the auction house RR Auction in Boston announced.

This letter was written in German and dated October 26, 1946.

The recipient was the Polish-American physicist Ludwik Silberstein.

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