Magna Carta Sold for $21.3M - Proceeds to Charity

Really old and really rare means really valuable. The Magna Carta, one of 17 existing copies, sold for $21.3 million at Sotheby’s. It didn’t sell for what they hoped. The sheepskin was the first code of law to settle disputes between England’s Kin and English barons. It was written in 1215, and the proceeds went to Ross Perot’s Charity.

David Rubenstein, founder of The Carlyle Group ,became the proud owner of the exclusive English royal manuscript, Magna Carta (aka Magna Carta Libertatum) when he paid a whopping US $21.3 million at the Sotheby’s auction in New York. It had been earlier expected to draw bids of $30 million or higher. The royal charter dated 1297, bearing the wax seal of King Edward I, enshrined the rights of man into English law. The 710-year-old iconic vellum manuscript is one of the only 17 existing copies of the Magna Carta. The manuscript, most likely made of sheepskin, enshrined the rule of law in England at a time of disagreements between King John and the English barons and was first issued in 1215 and confirmed as English law in 1297. The document previously belonged to the Brudenells of Northamptonshire, England, who owned it since the late 14th or early 15th centuries and the proceeds of the sale will go to a charity set up by billionaire Ross Perot.