An American billionaire bought an original copy of the Constitution of the United States of 1787 at auction on Thursday, November 18, for $ 43 million and is going to lend it to a museum in the country to be exhibited free of charge to as many people as possible, Sotheby’s announced Friday, November 19.
The auction house in New York put on the market Thursday, November 18, the famous American Constitutional Charter which reached a record price in the world for this kind of historical documents.
Its buyer, Kenneth Griffin, is the boss of the speculative investment firm Citatel in Chicago and which manages, according to Forbes magazine, some 40 billion dollars in assets.
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Aged 53, his personal fortune is estimated, according to Forbes, at nearly $ 21 billion, making him the 47th richest American.
“A sacred document”
Thursday evening, Mr. Griffin thus damned the pawn to a group of 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts – baptized ConstitutionDAO – who had claimed to have raised in a few days more than 40 million dollars to buy this copy of the Constitution and exhibit it in the digital public domain. ConstitutionDAO immediately admitted Thursday having missed its bet.
Mr. Griffin has chosen to lend it for free to a museum in Arkansas – the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville – which will exhibit it without charging visitors, according to Sotheby’s.
“The Constitution of the United States is a sacred document which guarantees the rights of every American and of those who aspire to become one,” the billionaire wrote in a statement from the auction house.
Mr. Griffin assured that “this original copy of our Constitution will be on display for all Americans and visitors”, while Crystal Bridges Museum President Olivia Walton said in the same statement “honored to exhibit one of the most important documents in the history of our nation “.
There are only “13 known copies”
According to Sotheby’s, only “13 known copies” of the first printing of the Constitution of the United States, signed September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, remain, although 500 had probably been printed at the time.
The original copy bought by billionaire Kenneth Griffin – one of only two that still belonged to an individual, in this case the American collector Dorothy Tapper Goldman – was estimated in September between 15 and 20 million dollars. It left for more than double in eight minutes with auctions taken in the room in New York but also on the phone from around the world.
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