LONDON, September 7. /TASS/. A violin belonging to Albert Einstein (1879-1955) has been put up for auction in the UK with an estimated value of 200,000 to 300,000 pounds ($270,000-405,000), English auction house Dominic Winter, which will hold the auction on October 8, said.
According to it, the future Nobel laureate and author of the theory of relativity acquired the musical instrument in Germany in the mid-1890s, shortly before leaving for Switzerland to study at the Zurich Polytechnic School. When the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, Einstein decided to emigrate to the United States. He handed over his belongings to his colleague Max von Laue, a physicist. They included the violin, the first one the scientist personally bought, a bicycle and a book on philosophy given to young Einstein by his father.
20 years later, von Laue gave these items to a big fan of Einstein, Margareta Hommrich from Braunschweig, as a gift. The things have been in her family for over 70 years. Hommrich's great-granddaughter decided to auction them.
The bicycle saddle (the bicycle has fallen into complete disrepair) is put up for auction for 50,000 pounds, and an 1843 book by Rene Descartes and Benedict Spinoza with pencil notes by Einstein for 3,000 pounds.
Einstein began playing the violin as a child at the insistence of his mother, Pauline, and retained this passion for the rest of his life, often performing works by Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven for friends. He also played while thinking - the scientist said that music helped him to think. He called all his violins, including the one put up for sale in England, Lina.