A book sold for $13.6m

According to forbes, the book above called The Rothschild prayer book sold for $13,6m at a recent auction.

The auctioneer hammered down the lot at $12 million. That’s around $13.6 million after the seller’s commission, far more money than most make in a lifetime. Last week, the Rothschild Prayerbook, the Flemish manuscript from the 16th century, confiscated by the Nazis and later returned by the German government, broke the record for an illuminated manuscript at auction. It edged out its previous record set 15 years ago, when it sold for $13.4 million.
The last few years have truly seen impressive numbers in the book and autograph world. Just months ago, the most expensive printed book sold for $14.2 million to David Rubinstein of the Carlyle Group. The Bay Psalm Book is the earliest printed work in British North America. Rubinstein also set the record for the most paid for a newspaper when he bought the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence for more than $630,000. A few years earlier, he paid $21.3 million for the Magna Carta. More recently, someone set the record for the most ever paid for a copy of Abraham Lincoln’s signed Emancipation Proclamation, when a copy formerly belonging to Robert Kennedy sold for approximately $3.8 million.
As this last example shows, David Rubenstein’s presence in the market is not the only one. Private collectors and institutions have helped drive prices higher. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association bought George Washington’s annotated copy of the Constitution for around $10 million. And a private collector paid $3.4 million for a letter about slavery signed by Abraham Lincoln.
Recession? What recession? The appetite for books and historical documents, two collecting interests often treated as companions, has certainly changed since the market crash. But although the middle and lower ends of the market are generally considered to have weakened, the better material continues to sell and sell high. What’s more, an influx of buyers from emerging markets, newly wealthy and looking to spend, has invigorated not only the art market, where sales to Russian billionaires have made headlines, but also other areas. It has touched the book and manuscript world and will continue to. Our business, The Raab Collection, saw our emerging market business greatly expand in 2013. Other firms are also expanding abroad. Christies opened an India office recently amid great fanfare.  This is not a coincidence. It is a reflection that is universally true: people with money collect, and they pay for the best.

So why on earth, you might ask, would anyone spend $13.6 million on this piece of paper?  “This has 67 full-page miniatures,” said Sandra Hindman, a dealer of illuminated manuscripts with galleries in Paris, New York, and Chicago, referring to the miniature paintings contained within. “They are by the greatest painters and illuminators of their day… These are in perfect condition. Paintings of this period are never in perfect condition anymore.”  For collectors of illuminated manuscripts, the art is the draw. Hindman says, “The price determinant for anything in an illuminated manuscript is who painted it.”
With historical documents and books in general, there are many reasons people choose to collect. For the buyer of the Prayerbook, he or she has acquired a book filled with Renaissance masterpieces. For some, the history is the hook.  David Rubenstein bought the Bay Psalm book to own the first printed work in America, a moment of time in history with great import. The acquirer of Robert Kennedy’s Emancipation Proclamation is now part of that legacy.  One thing unifies the pursuit of these very expensive collectibles: at the core of each collector’s interest is an emotional, often deeply personal attachment.
Although David Rubenstein, whose philanthropy has been an asset to more than one institution, has chosen not to remain anonymous, you will never know the names of most collectors. They choose to retain that anonymity. Most, lawyers, doctors, and others without Rubenstein’s deep pockets, make acquisitions in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, never spending a million on any individual object. But together their passion really shapes the majority of the transactions daily. Some create private libraries for their own enjoyment, built around their vision, a combination of political outlook, childhood passions, aesthetic, and desire for the objects.
So what will the owner of this $13.6 million prayerbook do with his new acquisition. Most “put it in their library on a shelf,” says Hindman. This is not a two-dimensional work, she points out, and although some create glass cases, most squirrel them away in safe places and pull them out from time to time.
Incidentally, none of these sales sets the ultimate record of most expensive book ever sold. That still belongs to the Leicester Codex of Leonardo Da Vinci sold to Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million.