World's oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible sells for $38 mn

A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old sold for 38.1 million USD in New York on Wednesday, setting a record for the most valuable manuscript ever sold at auction.  The Codex Sassoon -- which dates to the late ninth to early 10th century -- is the earliest near-complete Hebrew Bible known to still exist.

It was sold by Sotheby's following a four-minute bidding battle between two bidders. The sale surpassed the 30.8 million USD that Microsoft founder Bill Gates paid for Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester manuscript in 1994 as the most expensive handwritten document ever sold at auction.