A piece of paper containing Albert Einstein’s mathematics notes is expected to fetch £50,000.
On the simple paper, the brilliant mathematician scribbled a sequence of scientific equations in ink and pencil.
He marked out little portions of the draft manuscript, demonstrating that even the brightest minds occasionally make mistakes.
Einstein, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, likewise annotated his formulations to explain his intentions.
In October 1933, two months after renouncing his German citizenship and being forced to flee Nazi Germany, he composed the letter.
Tragically, the exiled physicist signed off with a melancholy message: “Albert Einstein: From the cemetery of lost hopes.”
The notes are accompanied with a letter from Einstein’s wife, Elsa, to a friend in which she describes the couple’s new life in America, where Einstein had taken a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
International Autograph Auctions in Malaga, Spain, are selling the documents.
Richard Davie, a specialist at the auctioneers, remarked, “Although Einstein generated many such pages of scientific formulae over his lifetime, collectors continue to covet them, and signed specimens are quite rare.”
Einstein’s handwritten reflections on the possibility of what he hoped to accomplish with his calculations, as well as Elsa Einstein’s exquisite letter of provenance, significantly improve the current copy.
His note, ‘from the graveyard of buried hopes,’ indicates that he may have abandoned the issue he was attempting to solve.
It also echoes the fact that he had recently been forced to depart Germany. He would not have survived Hitler’s rule due to his Jewish ancestry.
Notable is the fact that they were corresponding to Professor Arthur de Groodt and his wife Juliette Adant, who assisted them during this transitional era.
Albert and Elsa Einstein returned to Europe from the United States in March 1933 and found that Hitler had won power and that the Gestapo had invaded their Berlin flat, seizing a number of their belongings.
Albert Einstein promptly attended the German consulate in Antwerp, Belgium, to surrender his passport and renounce his German citizenship.
Einstein spoke about the value of academic independence before a crowded audience at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 3, 1933.
Four days later, he and his wife came to the United States and he accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, a haven for scientists fleeing Nazi Germany.
Einstein died in 1955 aged 76.
The 30th of November will see the sale of his notes, which might fetch up to €60,000.
»Einstein’s handwritten math notes will be auctioned off for £50,000 next week«