Albert Einstein’s Michele Besso letters to sell

Christie’s will offer more correspondence between Albert Einstein and his lifelong friend Michele Besso in an upcoming auction.

The two studied together in Switzerland during the 1890s.

Einstein relativity Besso

Michele Besso was one of Einstein's closest friends

The first instalment of the Besso collection took place in July and achieved excellent results, with many of the letters doubling or tripling their estimates.

This latest selection features some intriguing lots.

Topping the auction with an estimate of $30,000 is a letter dated March 10, 1914, in which Einstein discusses his excitement around his theory of general relativity.

He’d started working on the project in 1907 but was now within sight of the finish line. He presented his findings just over a year later, in November 1915.

The letter reads in part: “Now I am completely satisfied and have no further doubt about the correctness of the whole system, whether the observation of the solar eclipse succeeds or not.

“The logic of the thing is too obvious”. 

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is among his most celebrated accomplishments and letters referencing it are highly sought after.

We’re in a bull market for Einstein, with enormous sums being set for autograph manuscripts.

Only last month a buyer paid $1.5m for a note Einstein gifted to a courier in Tokyo in 1922.

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