Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Albert Einstein ‘Tongue’ Photo Fetches $125K At Auction

LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A famous photo of Albert Einstein, sticking out his tongue at a photographer and signed by the renowned scientist, has been sold for $125,000.

The Nate D. Sanders auction house here, in announcing the sale Thursday evening, did not reveal the buyer’s identity.

UPI (United Press International) photographer Arthur Sasse took the picture on March 14, 1951 while covering Einstein’s 72nd birthday party, given by his colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

Einstein had gotten tired of smiling for photographers at the party and when Sasse renewed the request, the scientist stuck out his tongue instead.

Initially, UPI editors hesitated to publish the irreverent photo, but when they did Einstein was so amused that he ordered nine prints to give to close friends.

The $125,000 selling price, which equaled the minimum bid level set by the auction house, reflected the value place on a photo bearing Einstein’s signature. While the photo is generally shown cropped with only Einstein in the picture, the auctioned version represents the original, with Einstein seated between his hosts, Dr. Frank Aydelotte, head of the Institute for Advanced Study, and his wife.

The 7” x 10” photo was previously on the market in 2009, when it was sold at auction for $74,324. The Hebrew University stands to benefit from the current $125,000 sale, since Einstein bequeathed his estate, including the use of his image, to the Jerusalem institution.

Einstein’s March 14 birthday continues to be celebrated in Princeton as “Pi Day” because the 3/14 date corresponds to 3.14, the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi.

Einstein, who died in 1955, assisted numerous Jewish institutions and organizations during his lifetime, including the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In the 1930s and ‘40s, he helped to raise money for the global wire service, was photographed inspecting its printing press and carried on a correspondence with JTA founder Jacob Landau.

Einstein’s name has retained its universal recognition as a synonym for supreme intelligence. The National Geographic television channel has just concluded airing a minis, titled “Genius,” with Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Flynn as the older and younger Einstein respectively.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.