Ken Griffin, billionaire CEO of hedge fund Citadel, paid $432 million for a first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday, outbidding a group of cryptocurrency financiers.
The quantity more than doubles its $20 million high price quote, setting a world auction record for any book, manuscript, historic file, or printed text, according to Sotheby’s.
A band of more than 17,000 crypto lovers, recognized as Constitution DAO, had actually crowdfunded more than $40 million through social networks previously today in a quote to win the auction. Sotheby’s stated it was the biggest crowdfunding effort ever created.
The group lost the quote to Griffin in an eight-minute bidding fight on the telephones, Sotheby’s stated.
Ken Griffin, the creator and CEO of Citadel.
E. Jason Wambsgans|Tribune News Service|Getty Images
Griffin plans to provide the piece to a totally free Arkansas art museum, a Citadel representative stated.
“The U.S. Constitution is a sacred document that enshrines the rights of every American and all those who aspire to be,” Griffin stated in a declaration. “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.”
This printing of the Constitution was last cost auction for $165,000 in 1988 to S. Howard Goldman, the now-late other half of benefactor Dorothy Tapper Goldman.
This is among simply 13 recognized copies of the main printing produced for the delegates to Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress, and just 2 copies of the very first printing of the Constitution that stays in personal hands.
