The first rare US Constitution document sold for 43.2 million at the New York auction house Southbase, a record price paid for any document or book.
According to the French news agency AFP, Southbase announced that the buyer of the document, hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, would lend the document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas for public display. Will
Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of the multinational hedge fund Citadel, thwarted an attempt by 17,000 people to buy the document through cryptocurrency who had crowdfunded to buy it.
Kenneth Griffin said in a statement that “the US Constitution is a sacred document that protects the rights of every American and all those who desire rights.”
“That’s why I want to make sure that this copy of our constitution is available to all Americans and tourists in our museums and other public places,” he said.
Olivia Walton, Chairperson of the Crystal Bridges Board, said: “We are privileged to present one of the most important documents in the history of our nation, from its location in the heart of the United States.
The auctioned constitutional document is one of the eleven copies signed and approved by American founders George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison at the Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787.
The printing of the constitution was last sold in 1988, when real estate developer and collector S. Howard Goldman bought it at auction for $165,000.