A manuscript of the German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, who has made numerous contributions to the world of science, will be put up for auction in the coming days, where many collectors are expected to compete. In these pages, which will be one of the most valuable manuscripts ever to be auctioned, Albert Einstein and his friend Michele Besso laid the foundations of the general theory of relativity.
The manuscript, which will be put up for auction on Christie’s this evening, consists of 54 pages in total. Pages featuring the writings of Einstein and his friend are expected to sell for between $2.4 million and $3.5 million. If the expectation comes true, this manuscript will be one of Albert Einstein’s most expensive assets to go up for auction.
The fruits of Einstein and his friend’s thoughts lie in 54 pages:
Pages written at the time spanning 13 June 1913 and early 1914 show Einstein and Besso’s quest to solve a cosmic mystery. In particular, the duo are trying to explain that Mercury’s orbit is only slightly further away than predicted by Newton’s laws of motion. This explanation uses ideas and equations that will become the basis of the theory of relativity.
According to the information provided by the auction platform, only Einstein’s own writing is found on 26 of 54 pages. On 24 pages, there is only Besso’s writing. Three pages contain the writings of both Besso and Einstein. On the pages, it can be seen that Besso added comments to Einstein’s ideas, and Einstein added comments to Besso’s ideas and their own. For example, Einstein seems to have noted down an idea as “It works!”.
Einstein’s manuscripts often sell for millions of dollars. In May 2021, his manuscript containing the famous equation E=mc2, sent from Einstein to a rival physicist, sold at auction for $1.2 million. In 2017, two notes Einstein wrote to a bellboy at a hotel in Tokyo sold for $1.5 million.
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