Ancient Hebrew Bible breaks record at auction

The Sassoon Codex, which dates to the late 9th or early 10th century, is the oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible ever discovered, Sotheby's said. It was sold after a four-minute dispute between two bidders.

The Bible was purchased by former American diplomat Alfred Moses on behalf of a US non-profit organization, which will donate it to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, the auction house said.

“The Hebrew Bible is the most influential book in history and forms the basis of Western civilization. I'm happy to know that it belongs to the Jewish people,” said Moses, who was United States ambassador under Bill Clinton.

The sale surpassed the $30,8 million paid for Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester manuscript in 1994, as the most expensive manuscript document ever sold at auction.

The historical document sold for the highest price remains an early print of the American Constitution, which Sotheby's sold for US$43 million (R$213 million) in November 2021.

The Sassoon Codex is one of only two codices, or manuscripts, containing the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible that have survived into the modern era. It is named after its previous owner, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), who assembled the world's most important private collection of ancient Jewish texts.

The document was auctioned for the first time in more than 30 years, and was estimated to sell for between US$30 million and US$50 million.

Read also

#LancheiraDoDia: videos of lunch box assemblies go viral on social media

Heart-shaped fruits, bread cut into different shapes, notes, colorful and playful pots. Just go on social media to find the #lunchboxoftheday trend 😋 And it's almost impossible to find someone who doesn't like the content made by moms. Even those who don't have school-age children love it!

* The text of this article was partially generated by artificial intelligence tools, state-of-the-art language models that assist in the preparation, review, translation and summarization of texts. Text entries were created by the Curto News and responses from AI tools were used to improve the final content.
It is important to highlight that AI tools are just tools, and the final responsibility for the published content lies with the Curto News. By using these tools responsibly and ethically, our objective is to expand communication possibilities and democratize access to quality information. 🤖