One of the manuscripts that paved the way for Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is set to be auctioned on Tuesday in Paris, with an estimated value between two and three million euros. Christie's, which is organizing the auction on behalf of Agut, stated that this piece is undoubtedly "the most valuable manuscript by Einstein to be sold at auction."
The document is a 54-page manuscript authored by the famous German physicist Einstein and his Swiss engineer friend Michele Besso in 1913 and 1914 in Zurich, Switzerland. Christie's added in its statement: "This manuscript miraculously reached us thanks to the Swiss engineer, as Einstein was probably not interested in preserving what he saw as a working document," according to Agence France-Presse.
The statement continued: "In early 1913, the two colleagues were focused on solving a puzzle that had puzzled scientists for decades, which was the anomaly in the orbit of the planet Mercury, and they indeed came to a solution." When Einstein discovered some errors in his manuscript, he no longer cared about it, but Besso kept it.
Adrian Logan, head of the rare books and manuscripts department at Christie's, stated that "scientific documents signed by Einstein from this period, especially before 1919, are very rare." After the special theory of relativity, which led him to prove the equation of mass-energy equivalence in 1905, Einstein began working in 1912 on the theory of general relativity. This theory of gravity, published in November 1915, revolutionized the way we understand the universe.
Einstein passed away in 1955 at the age of 76 and became a symbol of scientific genius as much as he became a symbol of a playful personality, thanks to his famous 1951 photograph where he is sticking out his tongue.
