Albert Einstein’s ‘Most Valuable’ Manuscript Could Fetch Over $2M At Auction
Image via Christie’s
An exclusive, 54-page work co-written by Albert Einstein and his close friend Michele Besso is heading to the auction block this week.
Dubbed the “most valuable” manuscript of the scientist’s to ever go under the hammer, auction house Christie’s is expecting it to fetch between US$2.4 million and US$3.5 million—which would make it the most expensive Einstein writing ever sold.
“This is without a doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever to come to auction,” the auction house said.
According to Live Science, the document was written between June 1913 and early 1914, with the duo attempting to explain why Mercury’s orbital path was ever-so-slightly off predictions made using Issac Newton’s laws of motion. These ideas would eventually form the basis of Einstein’s famed theory of relativity.
The auction house said 26 pages of the manuscript were written by Einstein, 24 by Besso, and three jointly by both of them. The duo had commented on each other’s work in the margins, and in one instance, Einstein wrote “stimmt!” (“It works!” in German) alongside his own calculations on the relative rotation of spheres, signaling his excitement at the discovery.
While both Einstein and Besso weren’t able to explain the mystery surrounding the planet’s orbital path, the equations developed in this manuscript directly led to the scientist’s equations of general relativity, which are still in use today.
Not to mention, this copy is one of the rare handwritten works of Einstein we have left, as he didn’t have the habit of keeping his own writing. Thanks to Besso, who preserved the document, it is one of two surviving drafts showing the beginnings of the theory of relativity.
Take a look at the manuscript here.
[via Live Science, cover image via Christie’s]
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