Albert Einstein letter auctioned for record £207,600
Published May 16th, 2008
A letter by Albert Einstein was sold yesterday at Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair, London, for a world record £207,600.
The letter, written in German in 1954 to philosopher Eric Gutkind, was sold in London, England, to a private collector. Extra phone lines had to be installed to cope with worldwide interest.
It was expected to fetch up to £8,000.
In the letter, Einstein, who was Jewish, rejects the notion that Jews were God’s chosen people
“For me, the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions,” he wrote.
He added that “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 also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise, I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”
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