At the auction, King Arthur and Einstein’s maps proved a surprise hit
The Arthurian text was the top lot, but the biggest surge in value was for the maps. Four of the physicist’s writings went unsold. Harry Potter and Tolkien stood out
Key points
In the end, the so-called ‘Manuscript of King Arthur and Merlin the Magician’ achieved the price predicted by experts at auction. On 8 July 2026, in London, during Christie’s ‘Valuable Books and Manuscripts, Including Cartography’ sale, it was sold for 2,246,000 pounds (just over three million dollars) before commission, thus becoming the top lot of the evening. The initial net estimate was 1,500,000–2,000,000 pounds. This illuminated manuscript on parchment, known as the ‘Clermont-Tonnerre Grail’ after one of its many owners, the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre , is most likely the work of an anonymous illuminator known as the ‘Master of the Liège Apocalypse ’ (active between 1290 and 1310).
It is not the most expensive one to have been sold to date: in 2010, Sotheby’s sold another example – the ‘Graal Rochefoucauld’ – for a higher price of 2.3 million pounds (3.7 million dollars at the time). Taking inflation into account, that would amount to around £3.83 million, or roughly $5.16 million.
The first tales of the King Arthur saga
Part of the ‘Lancelot-Grail’ cycle, also known as the ‘Vulgate Cycle’ – the heart of the Arthurian cycle – this is an extremely rare text: of the 200 copies that have survived to the present day, only seven are complete, and just three are in private hands. The Clermont-Tonnerre manuscript bridges the past and the present thanks to an unbroken lineage spanning seven centuries. Its owners would have delighted in reading the story of the quest for the Holy Grail, the – apparently semi-diabolical – origins of Merlin the Magician, and his adventures with a young King Arthur (one’s mind cannot help but turn to Disney’s *The Sword in the Stone*). In all likelihood, the book was illuminated in Metz. A free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, flourishing in trade and banking, and an important centre for book production.
Einstein at auction: today and a few years ago
Among the most highly publicised lots – as is always the case when they appear at auction – were a number of writings by the father of relativity. Of the 10 lots of autographs by Albert Einstein (1879–1955), four failed to find a buyer and one sold below estimate; however, four others quadrupled and quintupled their minimum estimates. The top lot in this small group, lot 54, fetched £609,600 against an estimate of £150,000–200,000, ranking fourth overall in the sale. It is a letter addressed to his colleague and dear friend Michele Besso, signed ‘Albert’ and dated ‘Prague, 26 March’ [1912]. It contains ten mathematical equations which illustrate, in technical detail, the first, decisive steps towards the development of his theory of gravity.
Lot 53 fetched £508,000 (fifth place) against an estimate of 100,000 – 120,000: two letters to his colleague Ludwig Hopf, also from Prague, in 1912. They contain the earliest evidence (February 1912) that has come down to us of the birth of the theory of general relativity. The other two lots that saw a significant increase in value were lot 64 (£234,950 from 60,000–80,000) and lot 58 (£57,150 from 15,000–20,000): the first, dated 1946, constitutes the first half of the manuscript setting out the theory of the unified field; the second, from 1922, is the revised draft of ‘The Meaning of Relativity’ (the four famous lectures Albert Einstein delivered in May 1921 at Princeton University).
