Rare copy of US Constitution sells for $41 million at Sotheby’s auction
HONG KONG — A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution sold for $41 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday.
An online cryptocurrency group that had crowdfunded over $46 million to bid for the document said on Twitter they failed to buy the document.
The extremely rare official first-edition printed copy of the U.S. Constitution, which was adopted by America’s founding fathers in Philadelphia in 1787, had been estimated by auctioneer Sotheby’s to be worth $15 million to $20 million.
It last sold for $165,000 in 1988, when it was acquired by the late S. Howard Goldman, a New York real estate developer and collector of American autographs, documents, and manuscripts.
Sale proceeds will benefit a charitable foundation in the name of his wife, Dorothy Tapper Goldman, to further the public’s understanding of democracy, according to Sotheby’s.