Lion Heart Autographs, for nearly forty years an internationally recognized dealer of autographs and manuscripts focusing on art, history, literature, music, and science, has announced highlighted auction results for the auction “Five Centuries of Autographs: Ferdinand & Isabella (1492) to the Present” auction which took place on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 in New York.
One of the most highly anticipated items offered in the sale was a rare handwritten manuscript by Albert Einstein dealing with matter and cosmological structure and containing a variant of the central formula for his theory of general relativity, described by noted Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson, as “The most elegant theory in the history of science.” Einstein’s revolutionary theory brought the physicist international fame and was recently proved correct with last year’s detection of gravitational waves. The manuscript sold for $44,000.
Additional highlighted results of the auction included an extremely rare customs card issued to a survivor of the Titanic aboard the rescue ship Carpathia sold for $12,000; an order signed by Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella punishing adulterous behavior in 1492 and written at the same time as Columbus was exploring the New World, shortly after his discovery of America sold for $16,000; ten telegrams regarding survivors of the Titanic including two from evangelist “Billy” Sunday sent just after the ship’s sinking sold for $7,000 and a piece of the original silver-colored cloth from the fuselage of the Spirit of St. Louis signed by Charles A. Lindbergh sold for $10,000.