A billionaire with close Kerry ties, who owned the world’s earliest, near-complete Hebrew bible, has sold the book at auction for over $38 million.
Jacqui Safra is the co-owner of the Parknasilla Resort and Spa; he also own Rossdohan and Garnish islands.
Since 1989, the Swiss-Lebanese investor had owned the Codex Sassoon, which is dated to the late ninth or early tenth century.
The book had been considered lost for over 600 years following the destruction of a synagogue in Syria, until it re-emerged in 1929.
The Codex Sassoon sold at Sotheby’s for $38.1 million this week, making it one of the highest prices for a book or historical document ever sold at auction.
Sotheby’s announced that the buyer was the American Friends of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv and that this was made possible by a donation from a former US Ambassador to Romania, Alfred H Moses.
