NYC Auction Of George Washington Document Sets Record
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A piece of American history was auctioned off in New York City Friday and the sale set a record for any American book or manuscript, WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported.
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George Washington's personal annotated copy of the "Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America" from 1789, which includes the Constitution and a draft of the Bill of Rights, was sold at Christie's.
Even after 223 years, the bound book is in near pristine condition.
The hammer price was $8.7 million dollars, though with fees the final cost to the buyer - the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which owns Washington's home at Mount Vernon in Virginia - was $9,826,500.
"It defines his recognition of the powers of the president," the Ladies' Association's Ann Boukun told Smith of the document.
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She said the document is headed back to Mount Vernon, where a presidential library is planned.
"It's going to be the centerpiece of our library, which we are opening in the fall of 2013," she said. "Something the he hoped to build before he died."
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