Rare first printing of US Constitution sells for record $43M
By KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution has sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $43.2 million, a record price for a document or book sold at auction. Sotheby’s announced Friday that the buyer was hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin. He will loan the Constitution to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Griffin outbid a group of 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts from around the world who crowdfunded to buy it over the last week. The previous auction record for a book or manuscript was set in 1994 when Bill Gates purchased the Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci at Christie’s for $30.8 million.
