A manuscript by Einstein auctioned 11.6 million euros this Tuesday in Paris

The bid is exclusive, one of the preparatory manuscripts of Albert Einstein’s general relativity theory is to be auctioned this Tuesday November 23, 2021 in Paris, at Christie’s in the 8^th arrondissement. This 50+ page document has been valued between two and three million euros and is said to be “the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever”.

Written in Switzerland between 1913 and 1914, the German physicist’s document is now accessible thanks to his then associate Michele Besso. Christie’s thinks without him “Einstein would probably have never made the effort of keeping what seemed to him a work document”. The unparallelly rare manuscript includes a few mistakes that once solved enabled both men to revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

The auction house that takes care of the bid speaks of an “incredible evidence of Einstein’s work […] enabling to dive in the mind of the greatest scientist in the 20^th century”.

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@Aguttes_ et @christiesparis proposeront le 23 novembre prochain un manuscrit de 54 pages, rédigé à quatre mains par Albert Einstein et Michele Besso entre 1913 et 1914 et traitant de la théorie de la relativité générale …
Estimation : 2-3 M€https://t.co/L2nPcbUjlo pic.twitter.com/tADSkBrKX8

— CARAA (@CARAA_Center) November 6, 2021

It was no surprise then the bid went this high and buyers wanted to pay more and more. This manuscript has been auctioned for the record price of 11.6 million euros by a buyer on the phone.

Prior to this bid, the previous record was a document that used to be Einstein's sold 2.4 million euros: it was a letter about God sold in 2018.