"Before Nazis Made the Atomic Bomb"... Einstein's Letter to Roosevelt Up for Auction

President Roosevelt Who Received Einstein's Letter
Established Committee for Nuclear Research
Predecessor of the 'Manhattan Project'

A letter written by the genius physicist Albert Einstein to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt just before the outbreak of World War II, warning about the Nazi threat of developing nuclear weapons, will be auctioned this September.

"Could lead to bomb manufacturing"... Einstein's letter expected to fetch 5.5 billion KRW

On the 25th (local time), foreign media including the U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that a two-page letter written by Einstein to President Roosevelt will be auctioned at Christie's in the U.S. this September. The estimated winning bid is at least 4 million USD (approximately 5.5 billion KRW).

This letter was written by Einstein in the summer of 1939 at the request of American scientists who asked him to warn President Roosevelt about the Nazi threat of developing nuclear weapons. The original letter actually received by President Roosevelt is kept at the Roosevelt Library and Museum in New York.

The letter up for auction this time was an additional copy made and kept by fellow scientist Leo Szilard for preservation purposes, and it is slightly shorter than the letter Roosevelt received. In the letter, Einstein, with Szilard's help, advised President Roosevelt that the U.S. should invest in nuclear research before the Nazis could use nuclear energy to create a "very dangerous bomb."

Einstein warned in the letter, "Recent research in nuclear physics has greatly increased the possibility that uranium may become a new and important source of energy," adding, "It may become possible to initiate a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium... and this new phenomenon could also lead to the manufacture of bombs."

"One of the most important documents in 20th-century history"

Genius physicist Albert Einstein. [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

President Roosevelt, upon receiving Einstein's letter, established a committee for nuclear research. This later became the precursor to the Manhattan Project, which led to the development of nuclear weapons in the U.S. The Manhattan Project was a research program during World War II to develop the atomic bomb, involving leading scientists of the time such as Robert Oppenheimer.

Szilard kept this letter throughout his life, and after his death, his family put it up for sale. Later, in 2002, publisher and collector Malcolm Forbes auctioned the letter, which sold for 2.1 million USD (about 2.9 billion KRW), drawing significant attention. This was the highest price ever paid for an item related to Einstein or President Roosevelt at the time and was recorded as the first historical document sold for over 1 million USD since the 20th century.

The buyer of the letter at that time was Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft (MS). Allen kept the letter for his lifetime until his death in 2018, and with his belongings now going up for auction, Einstein's letter is coming back into the public eye after more than 20 years.

Unlike his other collections, Allen reportedly never publicly displayed this letter during his lifetime. Mark Porter, Chairman of Christie's Americas, told the WSJ in an interview, "Allen undoubtedly knew that this letter is one of the most important documents in 20th-century history," adding, "This is not something you just hang up in an office."