A more than 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible will sell at auction in New York for about $50 million, Sotheby’s announced Wednesday.
The Sassoon Codex – which dates from the late ninth to the early tenth century – is the most complete and earliest Hebrew Bible ever discovered.
It will be the most expensive historical document or manuscript to go up for auction at Sotheby’s in May.
“(It is) undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts.
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The Sassoon Codex is one of only two codexes, or manuscripts, containing all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible that have survived into modern times.
It is more complete than the Aleppo Codex and older than the Leningrad Codex, two other famous early Hebrew Bibles, Sotheby’s said.
The manuscript links the Dead Sea Scrolls – which date back to the third century BC – and the modern accepted form of the Hebrew Bible.
It is named for its previous owner David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) who amassed the most important private collection of ancient Jewish texts in the world.
The document is being auctioned for the first time in more than 30 years, with a pre-sale estimate of $30 million to $50 million.
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In November 2021, Sotheby’s sold one of the first printings of the US Constitution for $43 million, a record price for a historical manuscript.