Billionaire investor Kenneth Griffin outbid on online cryptocurrency group to buy a first-edition copy of the US Constitution for US$43.2 million (NZ$61.6 million) at Sotheby's on Thursday, the auction house and a spokesman for Griffin said on Friday.
A page of the first printing of the United States Constitution on display at Sotheby's auction house in New York. Photo: AFP or licensors
The hammer came down after an eight-minute bidding battle on the telephones and set a world auction record for any book, manuscript, historical document or printed text, Sotheby's said.
Griffin, who founded US$43 billion investment firm Citadel, is a prominent art collector and plans to loan the work to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, Arkansas, where it will be on display.
"The US Constitution is a sacred document that enshrines the rights of every American and all those who aspire to be," Griffin said in a statement. "That is why I intend to ensure that this copy of our Constitution will be available for all Americans and visitors to view and appreciate in our museums and other public spaces."
Sotheby's said the document is one of just 13 known copies of the official printing produced for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and submission to the Continental Congress, and only two copies of the first printing of the Constitution that remains in private hands. This printing of the Constitution was last sold at auction in 1988 for US$165,000 (NZ$235,000), the auction house said.
Griffin, whose hedge fund invests in many of the world's biggest companies and whose views on the economy and markets are widely followed, outbid the cryptocurrency group ConstitionDAO, which had crowdfunded over US$46 million. The group said on Twitter that it had lost.
- Reuters