Earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible auctioned, sold for $38.1m

The Codex Sassoon, the earliest and most complete Hebrew Bible ever discovered, is displayed at Sotheby’s in New York City

The Codex Sassoon, the earliest and most complete Hebrew Bible ever discovered which is estimated to sell for between $30 million and $50 million, is displayed at Sotheby's in New York City, New York U.S., February 15, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

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A book believed to be the earliest and most complete copy of the Hebrew Bible was sold for 38.1 million dollars on Wednesday in New York, auction house Sotheby’s said.

The Codex Sassoon “contains all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible missing only 12 leaves and precedes the earliest entirely complete Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex, by nearly a century,’’ the auction house said.

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The Bible, dating to the late ninth or early 10th century, has become the most expensive auctioned manuscript and the most expensive religious Jewish artefact auctioned in history, Sotheby’s said.

After a four-minute bidding war, the auction was won by a U.S. non-profit which intended to gift it to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

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