A 64-year-old letter by Albert Einstein, known as the “God letter” because of its ruminations on formal religion, sold for almost $2.9 million in Manhattan on Tuesday.
The two-page letter, dated January 3, 1954, was written to German philosopher Eric Gutkind, who had sent Einstein a copy of his book “Choose Life: The Biblical Call To Revolt”.
“The word God is for me nothing but the expression of and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends,” the message reads. “No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change anything about this.” says Einstein in the letter.
Christie’s, the auction house that had estimated the letter would sell for $1 million to $1.5 million, said the page-and-a-half message went for $2,892,500 after a four-minute bidding battle between two clients on the telephone. Christie’s did not identify the winner.
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