An American financial billionaire spent Thursday evening more than $ 43 million for one of the 13 known copies of the original edition of the American Constitution. He toppled a group of thousands of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who had raised $ 40 million to acquire the document.
Kenneth Griffin, boss of the investment fund Citadel and 47th American fortune, is since Thursday evening the proud owner of one of the extremely rare original editions of the American Constitution, auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York.
The billionaire immediately clarified that the document – the most expensive ever sold at an auction – would be kindly loaned to the Crystal Bridges American Art Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, which will exhibit it for free, precise Vice.
“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”, Griffin said after its acquisition.
With a final bid of $ 43.2 million, the billionaire has dampened the hopes of ConstitutionDAO, a group of some 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts who had announced that they had raised $ 40 million to acquire the precious document and put it in open access. digital.
But as noted Vice, “It’s usually not a good idea to launch an auction against buyers who might have a lot more money than you, shouting from the rooftops the exact limit of the price you can put”.
Historians estimate that the first printing of the American Constitution, signed on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, would have been printed in some 500 copies. Today only 13 are known, mostly held by museums, archives and libraries.
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