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Einstein's letters fetch USD 210,000 at auction

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Press Trust of India Jerusalem
Eight letters written by German scientist Albert Einstein have fetched nearly USD 210,000 at an auction today, with the highest bid going to a letter about God's creation of the world.

The letters, written in English between 1951 and 1954, were initially valued between USD 31,000 and USD 46,000.

The highest bid of USD 84,000 was for a letter to eminent physicist David Bohm in February 1954, a year before Einstein's death.

"If God has created the world his primary worry was certainly not to make its understanding easy for us," Einstein wrote in the letter.

In another letter to Bohm, which sold for USD 50,400, Einstein discussed the link his colleague made between quantum theory and "relativistic field theory".
 

The typewritten letter includes an equation added in neat handwriting and the writer's signature, the 'Times of Israel' reported.

Bohm, born in the US to Jewish immigrant parents, had worked with Einstein at Princeton University before fleeing to Brazil after losing his post in Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts.

A 1954 letter in which Einstein discusses the possibility of Bohm moving to Israel was also sold by the Winner's Auction in Jerusalem.

"Israel is intellectually alive and interesting but has very narrow possibilities and to go there with the intention to leave on the first occasion would be regrettable," Einstein wrote.

The auction house said the letters came from the estate of Bohm's late widow.

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First Published: Jun 21 2017 | 4:07 PM IST

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