It was expected to go for about 12,000 dollars, but in the end, a newly released letter in which Albert Einstein calls God the "product of human weakness" and religion "childish" went for way more. The sale price: 404,000 dollars.
It was too much for Richard Dawkins, who lost out to an unidentified overseas collector with "a passion for theoretical physics and all that that entails," Rupert Powell, managing director of Bloomsbury Auctions, told the Associated Press. Dawkins couldn't attend the auction but sent in a bid remotely, and while he wouldn't give its exact amount, he did tell the Guardian that "it was substantially higher than the estimate but substantially lower than the final price." —Heather Wax