May. 18, 2023 at 8:46 pm

Ancient Bible sells for $38.1 million at Sotheby’s

May 18, 2023no commentNo tags

The “Codex Sassoon,” an ancient Hebrew Bible written in the late 9th or early 10th century, was purchased Wednesday at Sotheby’s in New York City for $38.1 million.

For the record: The price for “The Good Book” includes the auction house’s fee.

Who bought the Bible?

The nearly complete ancient Hebrew Bible was purchased by former U.S. Ambassador to Romania Alfred H. Moses, Sotheby’s said in statement.

Moses bought it on behalf of the American Friends of ANU, according to the sale organizer, and donated to ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, where it will join a collection.

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Why was it so expensive?

According to Sotheby’s Judaica specialist Sharon Liberman Mintz, the price “reflects the profound power, influence, and significance of the Hebrew Bible, which is an indispensable pillar of humanity.”

At 1,110 years old, the Codex Sassoon is said to be “the earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible” ever found, Sotheby’s said.

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The purchase is one of the most expensive prices for a manuscript fetched at auction, The Associated Press reported. In 2021, a copy of the U.S. Constitution sold for $43 million and in 1994, Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester sold for $31 million (about $60 million today).

Where did the Codex Sassoon name come from?

The leather-bound, “handwritten parchment volume” got its name from David Solomon Sassoon of London, who purchased the Bible in 1929, Sotheby’s said. Sassoon, who lived in London and was the son of an Iraqi Jewish business magnate, was “a passionate collector” of Jewish manuscripts who had “a special affinity for Bibles in particular,” the sale organizer said.

After Sassoon died in 1942, Sassoon’s estate was broken up. The “Codex Sassoon” was sold by Sotheby’s in Zurich in 1978 to the British Rail Pension Fund for around $320,000, or $1.4 million in today’s dollars.

The pension fund sold the Codex Sassoon 11 years later to Jacqui Safra, a banker and art collector, who bought it in 1989 for $3.19 million ($7.7 million in today’s dollars). Safra was the seller on Wednesday.

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Ancient Bible sells for $38.1 million at Sotheby’s

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