Published: 19 May 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The 1100-year-old Hebrew Bible was bought by ANU – Museum of the Jewish People – in Tel Aviv.
The book, Codex Sassoon, is the world’s oldest nearly complete copy of the Hebrew Bible. It was handwritten in Syria or the Land of Israel roughly 1,100 years ago on 792 pages of sheepskin. It includes all 24 books of the Bible and is missing only about eight pages. Its writing and layout recall those of Torah scrolls read in synagogue.
It was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York and sold for $US38.1 million ($57.8m) to ANU.
There were fears that it would end up in private hands rather than a public institution that would put it on display. But attorney Alfred Moses, a former US ambassador to Romania, and his family provided the funds for the museum to purchase the artefact.
“The Hebrew Bible is the most influential book in history and constitutes the bedrock of Western civilization. I rejoice in knowing it belongs to the Jewish people,” Moses said in a statement. “It was my mission, realizing the historic significance of Codex Sassoon, to see that it resides in a place with global access to all people.”
A handful of buyers competed for the book — in person at Sotheby’s and by phone — and the auction took less than six minutes. Ahead of the auction, Sotheby’s estimated that the item would sell for anywhere from $US30m to $US50m. The “gavel price” was $US33.5m, but with fees and premiums, the final price tag reached $US38.1m. The seller was Swiss financier and collector Jacqui Safra, who had owned the volume since 1989.
Since no book or historical document quite like it has been sold at auction for decades, the Codex Sassoon has earned comparisons to other foundational texts of civilization that have also commanded tens of millions of dollars. A copy of the first printing of the US Constitution’s final text sold for $US43.2m in 2021. The Codex Leicester, a journal with writings by Leonardo Da Vinci, fetched $US30.8m in 1994. And a copy of the Magna Carta sold for $US21.1m in 2007.
“This is one of the rarest, unique, uniting documents that ever existed,” Irina Nevzlin, chair of ANU’s board of directors, told JTA. “For us to have it in the museum where it will be available for all those millions of people — this is something that can strengthen our roots and our identity, because it’s something eternal.”
She added, “We are the right home for it for so many reasons. Also, for the fact that we’re based in Israel.”
The in-person auction attracted a standing-room-only crowd of onlookers, many of whom said they felt compelled to witness a transaction of immense significance in Jewish tradition.
“This is a historic moment,” said Elinatan Kupferberg, an American scholar and writer. “This is the oldest Torah in existence. Whoever is going to own it next is going to change history.”
Kupferberg, who said his most precious books were those containing the handwritten notes of great rabbis, said he sometimes regrets when Jewish texts are bought by collectors because they will not be used in everyday study. Not so, he said, with this item.
“It doesn’t make me feel sad to see it behind glass because it was meant to be a reference work,” he said.
Photo: Auctioneer Benjamin Doller takes bids for the Codex Sassoon at Sotheby's Manhattan headquarters on May 17. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty)
