1,100-Year-Old Hebrew Bible Sells for $38M, Heading to Israel.

The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv will soon be home to one of the world’s oldest surviving biblical manuscripts, a 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible known as the Codex Sassoon. The leather-bound, handwritten parchment volume, which contains a nearly complete Hebrew Bible, was sold for $38 million at an auction in New York on Wednesday. Alfred H Moses, a former US ambassador to Romania, purchased the manuscript on behalf of the American Friends of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. The Codex Sassoon was previously owned by Jacqui Safra, a banker and art collector who acquired it for $3.19 million in 1989. Sotheby’s Judaica specialist Sharon Liberman Mintz said the high price tag reflects the profound power and significance of the Hebrew Bible.