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Record auction at Sotheby's for rare copy of the American Constitution

2021-11-20T07:45:52.370Z


A private collector wins a very rare first copy of the American Constitution from Sotheby's for a record amount and a case breaks out: the anonymous customer who got his hands on the document, one of the 13 arrived to us from "We the People", has ... (ANSA)


A private collector wins a very rare first copy of the American Constitution from Sotheby's for a record amount and a case breaks out: the anonymous customer who got his hands on the document, one of the 13 arrived to us from "We the People", has beaten by ConstitutionDAO, a large group of cryptocurrency investors who had raised $ 46 million to seize it and put it back "in the hands of the people." In the end, after eight minutes of upward bidding, the amount paid was $ 43.2 million including auction fees, double the starting estimate. Asked why ConstitutionDAO stopped at 40 million, a spokesperson explained that the group had calculated its cap based on additional costs such as insurance, storage and transportation.The six-page Constitution dated 1787 has thus become the most expensive document handed over at auction, more than Leonardo's Leicester Code which Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates paid $ 30.8 million and more than 27 years ago. Magna Carta for which Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein paid out 21.3 million in 2007. If the buyer has remained anonymous, it is known that ConstitutionDAO was born last week on the initiative of Graham Nova and Austin Cain, two 25-year-old financial advisors. From morning to evening the group had collected contributions from 17,437 people. DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization and refers to a revolutionary way of organizing and managing organizations, making use of smart contracts and blockchain technology. If the initiative was successful,it would be a first for an art market hitherto based on the rich wallets of billionaire buyers. Small consortia and fractional ownership already exist in smaller art circles, but the vast effort to determine the fate of a star-and-stripe heirloom history evokes, according to the Wall Street Journal, the first major crowdfunding experiment in the US when in 1885 the Americans each paid out a few cents to put a pedestal under the foot of the Statue of Liberty. This time, individual donations averaged $ 206.26. Participants were told from the start that the contribution would not give them an actual fragment of the Constitution, but rather control through governance tokens tagged $ PEOPLE that would allow each 'shareholder 'to vote where the Constitution would be exhibited or donated. The funds raised will now have to be redistributed to individual donors. The Constitution changed hands at Sotheby's is one of two still in private hands: it was printed for the delegates to the Constituent Assembly and for the Continental Congress over 230 years ago. Only 27 first editions of the Declaration of Independence survive, but only 13 original copies of the Constitution are still in circulation.Only 27 first editions of the Declaration of Independence survive, but only 13 original copies of the Constitution are still in circulation.Only 27 first editions of the Declaration of Independence survive, but only 13 original copies of the Constitution are still in circulation.

Source: ansa

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