The first book written in what is today the United States of America raised $14.2 million (Dh52.1 million) in New York on Tuesday, becoming the world’s most expensive printed book sold at auction.
The translation of Biblical psalms “The Bay Psalm Book”
was printed by Puritan settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640 and sold at
a one lot auction in just minutes by Sotheby’s.
Bidding opened at $6 million and closed swiftly at a
hammer price of $12.5 million, rising to $14.165 million once the buyer’s premium
was incorporated.
The book, with its browning pages and gilt edges, was
displayed in a glass case behind the auctioneer to a relatively small crowd
which attended the less than five minute auction in person.
The settlers, who came to America to seek religious
freedom, had set about making their own preferred translation from the Hebrew
original of the Old Testament book after arriving from Europe. Sotheby’s named
the buyer as David Rubenstein, the billionaire American financier and
philanthropist. He was in Australia and his bid was conducted by telephone. Sotheby’s
had valued the book at $15-30 million, but denied any disappointment in the
sale price reached Tuesday.