To the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau - photo 1
To the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau - photo 2

To the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau

Lot 116
27.01.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
$ 11 340
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 887894
Lot 116 | To the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau
Estimate value
$ 3 000 – 4 000
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Typed letter signed ("A. Einstein") to Albert K. Bender, Princeton, 12 November 1952.

One page, 165 x 140mm on Institute for Advanced Study letterhead. With the original transmittal envelope.

A terse but polite reply to the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau. Einstein, evidently responding to a request to join what is believed to be the first major civilian UFO club in 1952 (or at least write a statement on its behalf), politely declines the invitation, writing that he had "no experience and only superficial knowledge in the field." Bender (1921-2016), was a collector, editor and the founder of the short-lived International Flying Saucer Bureau. He shut it down a year later, after he was supposedly visited by "three men in black." According to Bender, he had planned to publish "the truth" about a government coverup in the October 1953 issue of the Bureau's magazine, Space Review, but the three shadowy figures managed to intimidate Bender into ceasing publication. Bender's experiences were published by his associate Gary Barker in They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956) which helped place the "men in black" firmly into UFO folklore.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.01.2023 – 27.01.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

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