Albert Einstein Handwritten Letter With Famous E=mc2 Equation Sold at Auction for $1.2M

By Jess Smith First Posted: May 22, 2021 02:52 AM EDT

Three times more than its expected selling price, an Albert Einstein handwritten letter with his world-changing E=mc2 equation has been sold at an auction house based in Boston for more than $1.2 million on Friday.

Individuals responsible in the archives of the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem noted that aside from the one sold at Boston, there are only three other known examples of Albert Einstein's written equation.

According to RR Auction, the auction house where the most recent purchase happened, this fourth example of Albert Einstein handwritten letter with an equation is the only one in the hands of a private collector and only recently made its public appearance. In the initial assessment of the auction house, they had expected it to sell for around $400,000.

According to The Guardian, executive vice-president of RR Auction Bobby Livingston said that it is an important handwritten letter not only from the holographic field but also from the point of view of physics. Livingston also considered the equation as the most famous equation in the world.

The equation, which is the energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, has created a change in the field of physics. It demonstrated that time was not absolute and that mass and energy were equal.

The one-page Albert Einstein handwritten letter in German sent to physicist Ludwik Silberstein, a Polish-American, is dated Oct. 26, 1946, Associated Press reported. Silberstein was a well-known critic and a challenger of Albert Einstein in some of his theories.

In his handwritten letter on Prince University letterhead, which was translated by RR Auction, Albert Einstein noted that the question of the Polish-American physicist could be answered from the E=mc2 formula, without any erudition.

This Albert Einstein handwritten letter was a part of the personal archives of Silberstein, which his descendants later on sold. RR only identified the buyer of the piece as an anonymous collector of documents.

Livingston noted that the rarity of the letter set off a bidding war. He said five parties were bidding aggressively at first. However, when it hit the $700,000-mark, it became a duel between two parties. The auction started its bidding process on May 13 and concluded on Thursday.

Albert Einstein Brain Stolen

Albert Einstein, the Nobel prize-winning physicist, who gave the world not only the theory of relativity E=mc2 but also the law of the photoelectric effect, obviously had a special brain. It considered special that at the time of his death in Princeton Hospital on Apr. 18, 1955, the pathologist on call, Thomas Harvey, stole it, National Geographic reported.

But in the written book of Brian Burrell in 2005, Postcards from the Brain Museum, he mentioned that Einstein did not want his brain or body to be studied as he emphasized that he did not want to be worshipped.

Albert Einstein left with specific instructions about his remains. He instructed to cremate his body and scatter the ashes secretly in order to discourage idolaters.

WATCH: The Real Meaning of E=mc² - From PBS Space Time