Einstein's Warning Letter To US Franklin Roosevelt Set To Fetch $4 Million

A historic letter written by Albert Einstein to former US President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1939 is going up for auction. The letter urged the US to develop its own nuclear programme in fear that Nazi Germany might be on the path to creating atomic bombs, according to the BBC.

The letter is part of a collection belonging to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and will be sold alongside other artefacts.

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As per the news outlet, the letter urged the US to initiate its own nuclear program. President Roosevelt responded by establishing a committee, a precursor to the Manhattan Project led by J Robert Oppenheimer.

This project ultimately produced the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, closing World War II but also opening the door to the nuclear age.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Christie's plans to ask for at least $4 million for this two-page, typed letter, which is dated August 2, 1939, and begins bluntly. "Sir, recent work in nuclear physics has made it probable that uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy."

The letter isn't likely to break the $13 million record set in 2021 for one of Einstein's few surviving records detailing his theory of general relativity. But the record for any letter by Einstein is $2.8 million set in 2018 for a letter in which the physicist ruminates on God and religion.