NEW YORK — The world's oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible sold for US$38.1 million (S$51 million) on Wednesday (May 17), auction house Sotheby’s said, one of the highest prices ever for a book or document sold at auction.
Wednesday's winning bid for the Codex Sassoon was made via a donation by Mr Alfred H. Moses, a former US ambassador and president of the American Jewish Committee, who is giving it to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, Israel.
But it was below the estimated US$50 million that Sotheby's said in February it could sell for and below the US$43.2 million paid in 2021 for a first edition of the US Constitution, the world record for any book or document. The document offers a critical link bridging Jewish oral tradition to the modern Hebrew Bible. It was not until recently that former owner, collector Mr Jacqui Safra, had the Codex Sassoon carbon dated, confirming it was older than the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, two other major early Hebrew Bibles, according to Sotheby's.
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