Buzz
In a recent auction in New York on May 17th, Sotheby's successfully sold the oldest Hebrew Bible in the world for $38.1 million in a 5-minute bidding session.Although the expected price for the book was between $30 million and $50 million USD, this figure alone was enough to make Codex Sassoon the second most expensive historical document ever sold at auction, surpassing Leonardo da Vinci's scientific manuscript - the Codex Leicester - which was sold for $30.8 million USD in 1994.
The tome weighs 11.7 kilograms, spans 12.7 centimeters in thickness, housing 396 pages of documentation. It has officially been sold after a 5-minute anonymous bidding war over the phone. The final price, inclusive of fees for the auction house Sotheby, still falls short of breaking the record held by a copy of the US Constitution, purchased for $43.2 million by billionaire Ken Griffin in 2021.The new owner of the book is Mr. Alfred Moses, Former US Ambassador to Romania under President Bill Clinton. He represented a US non-profit organization in acquiring the Codex Sassoon to donate to the Jewish Museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. “The Hebrew Bible is the most influential book in the history and Western civilization. I am delighted that it has finally come to the Jewish people,” he remarked.
The Codex Sassoon is named after its previous owner, Mr. David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942). He possessed the most significant private collection of ancient Hebrew texts in the world. David Solomon Sassoon acquired this book in 1929 for 350 British pounds.
Theo The Wall Street Journal
