World's oldest Hebrew Bible could fetch $50 million at auction

A Hebrew Bible that's much than 1,000 years aged could merchantability for up to $50 cardinal astatine auction this spring, which would marque it the astir invaluable humanities papers ever auctioned.

Sotheby's successful May volition auction disconnected the alleged Codex Sassoon, which dates to the ninth period and bridges the find of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the modernly accepted signifier of today's Hebrew Bible.

"It is simply a captious touchstone of quality history," said Richard Austin, Sotheby's planetary caput of books and manuscripts.

The income estimation for the Bible is betwixt $30 cardinal to $50 million. In 2021, hedge money billionaire Ken Griffin paid $43.2 cardinal for a archetypal variation copy of the U.S. Constitution astatine a Sotheby's auction. In 1994 Bill Gates paid $30.8 cardinal for the Codex Leicester, a postulation of technological writings that contains drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.

The sanction "Codex Sassoon" comes from the Bible's erstwhile ownership, arsenic portion of the famed postulation of David Solomon Sassoon, who assembled the astir important backstage postulation of Judaica and Hebraica manuscripts successful the 20th century. Before the Codex Sassoon, lone fragments of biblical texts existed successful scroll form, experts say.

Sotheby's said that portion the Bible held a salient spot successful Sassoon's collection, it was lone precocious lone precocious scientifically studied and c dated by the existent owner, whom Sotheby's declined to name.

The c dating verified its dating to the 9th century, making it older than the Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex, 2 different well-known aboriginal Hebrew Bibles.