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Rare first printing of US Constitution coming to Crystal Bridges in Bentonville

The Constitution will be loaned to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution has sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $43.2 million, a record price for a document or book sold at auction. 

Sotheby's announced Friday that the buyer was hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin. He will loan the Constitution to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

Griffin outbid a group of 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts from around the world who crowdfunded to buy it over the last week. 

The previous auction record for a book or manuscript was set in 1994 when Bill Gates purchased the Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci at Christie’s for $30.8 million.

Credit: AP
FILE - A detail of a first printing of the United States Constitution is displayed at Sotheby's auction house during a press preview on Nov. 5, 2021, in New York. The rare copy has sold for a record $43.2 million at Sotheby’s to an anonymous buyer who outbid a group of crypocurrency investors. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The museum has not yet released a date for when it will be on display.

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