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The Einstein-Besso manuscript in the auction house in Paris
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ANTONY PAONE / REUTERS
A manuscript on the theory of relativity by the physicist Albert Einstein was auctioned in Paris for around 11.6 million euros.
The treatise comprises 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.
The auction house Christie's had estimated the value of the document in the run-up to the auction at two to three million euros. It is the highest auction proceeds so far for a scientific manuscript in France and "undoubtedly the most valuable Einstein manuscript" that has ever been offered at auction. Handwritten research manuscripts by the physicist from this period are "extremely rare," according to Christie's.
The auction started with a starting price of 1.5 million euros.
After just a few minutes, this amount skyrocketed.
In the end, two bidders engaged in a telephone battle over the manuscript by outbidding each other several times in 200,000 euro steps.
About a hundred onlookers watched the auction in the auction room.
The name or nationality of the buyer were initially not disclosed.
Besso kept the document
It was thanks to Einstein's confidante Besso that the manuscript that was now auctioned was still preserved, Christie's explained.
This is tantamount to a “miracle”, since it seems unlikely that Einstein would have kept a piece of paper that was created during the work process.
The manuscript deals with the general theory of relativity, in which Einstein built on his special theory of relativity with the famous formula E = mc², which he worked out in 1905.
Einstein's general theory of relativity, published in 1915, revolutionized mankind's understanding of the universe and important physical phenomena.
It is one of the great physical theories of the 20th century.
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.
Also under the hammer: Einstein letter from 1936
Also on Tuesday, a handwritten letter from Einstein was auctioned off in Jerusalem. The letter generated proceeds of 55,000 US dollars (a good 48,000 euros). The starting price for the letter from 1936 was the equivalent of almost 9,000 euros, as the auction house Kedem announced.
In the letter Einstein (1879-1955) reports on anti-Semitism in the USA, among other things.
"Although it never takes the form of brutal speeches and actions, it works all the more intensely under the covers," wrote Einstein, who was then teaching at Princeton in the US state of New Jersey.
"He is, so to speak, an omnipresent enemy, one you never see, you just feel." The recipient of the letter was the Jewish pianist Bruno Eisner from Austria, who also emigrated to the USA, and whom Einstein gave tips on how to find a job.
Einstein was born in Ulm and, as a Jew, had to flee from the Nazis to the USA.
In 1921 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
His other groundbreaking work included the light quantum hypothesis, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.
He died in Princeton in 1955 at the age of 76.
dpa / afp / Reuters