Letter From Nobel Prize Winner Sold for Record-Breaking $5.3M

A letter from the DNA pioneer and Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick to his son was sold for $5.3 million at a New York auction on Wednesday.

In total, the buyer, identified only as "anonymous," has disbursed a little over $6 million including commission.

According to Christie's, the letter dethroned Abraham Lincoln letter which sold for $3.4 million (commission included) in April of 2008.

Crick's family had announced early this year the auctioning of the Nobel Prize winner's medal, the accompanying diploma and other items. At the time they explained that a portion of the proceeds would benefit research institutions in the United States and United Kingdom.

Today off went the 60-year-old letter Francis wrote to his son, Michael, about DNA's double-helix structure, weeks before the Nobel Prize-winning discovery was revealed to the world. Tomorrow (Thursday) it is expected that the molecular biologist's 1962 Nobel Prize medal in physiology or medicine goes on sale as well.

Heritage Auctions, the institution carrying out the auction, estimates it could pocket over $500,000.

In the letter sold today, the biologist describes his discovery of the structure of DNA as something "beautiful."

Crick and his friend and colleague James Watson discovered the copying mechanism "by which life comes from life."

The letter even includes a simple sketch of DNA's double helix structure.

According to Fox News, the seven-page letter concludes in a paternal tone: "Read this carefully so that you will understand it. When you come home we will show you the model. Lots of love, Daddy."

Crick's son, Michael, was 12 when he received the letter in his board school.

His father, together with Watson and Maurice Wilkins went on to receive the Nobel Prize for their discovery.

Crick died at the age of 88. He spent the final decades of his career doing brain research at the Salk Institute, where he accepted a professorship role in 1977.