Two impressions of Albert Einstein's handprints in black ink have sold with excellent results as part of Sotheby's Music, Continental Books and Manuscripts auction, which was held June 5-6 in London.
 Raschig devoted a whole page to studying Einstein's hands, focusing on his prominent life and head lines |
The handprints were initially valued at a modest £10,000-15,000 ($25,466-23,200), but soon soared past this to realise £55,000 ($85,067) - a 266.6% increase.
Signed and dated by Einstein in 1930, the prints were taken by hand-reader Marianne Raschig, who included them in her book, Hand und Personlichleit, published the following year.
The palmist devoted a whole page to Einstein's particularly strong life and head lines.
Sotheby's experts could not find any other example of Einstein's handprints in existence.
The top lot of the sale was composer Robert Schumann's 1847 manuscript of Op.63 in D Minor, which is considered his finest and most important piano trio. It sold for £176,500 ($272,989).
The piece shows Schumann's first continuous draft for the work, including short sketches and aborted ideas. It is only of only two autographed copies, with the other - a copy that was sent to the printers - being "currently inaccessible".
 Goya received 6,000 reales for his six celebrated paintings |
Elsewhere, the auction offered the original receipt for the purchase of Francesco de Goya's celebrated series of six oil paintings about witchcraft, starring Vuelo de Brujas, which made an appearance in Danny Boyle's 2013 film Trance.
The six works were originally sold to Goya's patrons the Duke and Duchess of Osuna for 6,000 reales in 1798. In yesterday's sale, the receipt alone commanded £37,500 ($58,000).
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