Albert Einstein note to young female scientist sells at auction Published duration 6 March 2018

image copyright Reuters image caption A note from Albert Einstein to a young female scientist he was "interested in meeting" has sold at auction.

A note written by Albert Einstein in 1921 to an Italian scientist who had refused to meet him has sold for $6,100 (£4,300) at an auction in Jerusalem.

The Nobel-winning scientist, then 42, wrote to Elisabetta Piccini, a 22-year-old chemistry student.

Ms Piccini lived one floor above his sister, Maja, in Florence.

"Einstein was very interested in meeting her. [But] Ms Piccini was too shy to meet with such a famous person" Winner's auction house said.

In the letter written in his native German, Einstein uses an idiom signalling affection.

"To the scientific researcher, at whose feet I slept and sat for two full days, as a friendly souvenir," the note to Ms Piccini said.

"You know nowadays the 'Me Too' campaign? Probably Einstein would have been in this campaign by leaving such a note to this lady," Gal Wiener, chief executive of Winner's, told the Associated Press news agency.

The note was sold alongside a number of other letters from Einstein, including a 1928 note in which Einstein set out his thoughts for his "Third Stage of the Theory of Relativity" which was auctioned off for $103,000 (£74,000).

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