hr: Antiques

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In May of 2008, an Albert Einstein letter fetched £207, 600 ($404,000) at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair, London to an anonymous private collector.  It exceeded its presale estimate of £6,000 to £8,000. 
Albert Einstein is best known for his theories of relativity and for the most famous equation in the world, E=mc2.  He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.  His popularity made the name Einstein synonymous with genius.

The highly publicized letter, handwritten in German in 1954 to a philosopher Eric Gutkind, contains his thoughts and views about God and religion.

The physicist wrote, “The word god is for me nothing more than an expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”

Photo Credit: Lori Greig

He rejects the notion that the Jewish people could be God’s favorite.  He wrote, “For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.  And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people.  As far as my experience goes, they are no better then other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by lack of power.  Otherwise, I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”
It is signed, “With friendly thanks and best wishes, Yours, A. Einstein.”

According to John Brooke of Oxford University, one of the country’s leading experts on the scientist, despite Einstein’s rejection of conventional religion, he became angry when his views were appropriated by evangelists for atheism and was offended by their lack of humility.

Interestingly, another bestseller of Einstein include an entire collection of 53 love letters between Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, which was auctioned and sold in 1996 for $442, 500 at an auction at Christie’s in New York.