Francis Crick’s letter describing DNA discovery has sold for $5.3 million

BBC : In March 1953, Francis Crick wrote a letter to his 12-year-old son Michael describing the research that he had been working on with James Watson and the nature of their discovery. The seven-page letter, written more than a month before their paper describing the physical structure of DNA was published, also includes a sketch of the molecule. Crick’s family put the letter, Crick’s Nobel medal, and other items up for auction in honor of the 60th anniversary of the discovery; 20% of the profits will go to the Francis Crick Institute in London. The letter was expected by Christie’s auction house to sell for $1 million, but it set the record for a letter sold at auction at $5.3 million, to an anonymous buyer. The Nobel medal, which Crick received in 1962 along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, is now expected to sell for just $500â000 but, like the letter, it could fetch a significantly higher price.