Sotheby’s Auction House sold the world’s oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible, known as the “Codex Sassoon,” for $38.1 million. The buyer, Alfred H. Moses, former US ambassador to Romania, purchased it on behalf of the ANU Jewish People’s Museum in Israel. The manuscript is 1,100 years old and was donated to the museum. Despite falling short of the estimated $50 million, it set a new record for a book or document sale.
Codex Sassoon takes its name from its former owner, David Solomon Sassoon, a renowned collector of Jewish and Hebrew manuscripts in the 20th century.