Einstein’s “God letter” sells for $2.9 million
A blunt 1954 letter on God and religion — written a year before his death — set an auction record for an Einstein letter.
On 4 December 2018 Christie’s in New York sold Einstein’s so-called “God letter” for $2.89 million, far beyond its $1–1.5 million estimate. Written in German in January 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, it is his most candid statement on belief.
In it Einstein calls the word God “nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses” and the Bible “a collection of honourable but still primitive legends.” The letter is often quoted in debates about his views, which sat between organised religion and pure atheism.