Palm Beach land baron Ken Griffin likes old things.
Like dinosaur bones. Last year, he paid $44.6 million for a late Jurassic-era stegosaurus skeleton that was subsequently named Apex.
And paper stuff. In 2021, he spent $43.2 million on an exceedingly rare copy of the U.S. Constitution — one of 14 printed for delegates to the Constitutional Convention ― breaking Bill Gates’ 30-year-old record as the buyer of the world’s most expensive document, Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester, for which Gates paid $30.8 million in 1994.
And now, this.
Griffin is the no-longer anonymous successful bidder who snagged Abraham Lincoln’s hand-signed copy of the 13th Amendment, which sold last week at a New York auction house.
The document was the premium lot of Sotheby’s “Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana” sale, which took place June 26. Bidding for the piece was described as “spirited,” before Griffin, bidding by phone, beat the competition with a $12 million bid.
The document is one of only four still in private hands and was estimated to bring between $8 and $12 million. With the buyer’s premium, the final get was $13.7 million, a new record.
At the same sale, Griffin acquired a hand-signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s 1863 order declaring that all enslaved people in the Confederate states would be free. That document, which was signed in 1864, cost Griffin $4.4 million, also a record. Its estimated fetch was $3 million to $5 million.
Griffin said he intends to loan the documents to a U.S. institution.
Griffin issued a statement about his buys, which he said “marked a profound step forward, abolishing the scourge of slavery and advancing the ideal that all people are created equal.”
“As America approaches its 250th anniversary, we all have a part to play to strengthen and renew the promise of our nation. Each generation must experience the sacred documents of our democracy — to learn from them and be inspired to carry our country forward,” he continued. “I care deeply about the future of our nation and hope to inspire all Americans to uphold the vision set forth in our Constitution and the 13th Amendment.”
Griffin lives in Miami, where his Citadel LLC hedge fund and his Citadel Securities are headquartered. But he remains the largest landholder in Palm Beach, with a South End estate of more than 27 acres, assembled over several years at a cost estimated by the Palm Beach Daily News at more than $500 million.
He is building a mansion for his mother, Catherine Gratz Griffin, on part of that land, which is mostly undeveloped.
Forbes estimates his net worth at $45.9 billion.
Griffin, who donated $100 million to conservative political candidates last year, is an active and generous philanthropist, particularly to cultural causes.
Locally, he is a major supporter of the Norton Museum of Art, the Cox Science Center, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the Navy SEAL Foundation and Phipps Ocean Park.
“The record-breaking results for the Thirteenth Amendment and Emancipation Proclamation speak to more than just their rarity and historic importance — they affirm the enduring resonance of these texts and the impact they continue to have on our national consciousness,” said Selby Kiffer, International Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Department.
According to Sotheby’s, the copy of the Thirteenth Amendment is one of only 15 recorded manuscript copies signed by Lincoln. The copy Griffin bought bears the most signatures of the supporting legislators of any other known, the auction house said.
The Emancipation Proclamation is one of 48 limited edition copies produced to be sold for $10 each to benefit the Sanitary Commission, which provided medical care and support for Union soldiers. Of the 48 limited edition copies printed for this purpose, only 27 are known to survive, Sotheby’s said.
The previous record for a 13th Amendment at auction was $2.4 million, for a copy sold at Sotheby’s in 2016, while that for any Emancipation Proclamation sold at auction was $3.8 million, sold at Sotheby’s in 2010, the auction house said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Billionaire Ken Griffin buys rare copies of Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment
Reporting by Shannon Donnelly, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
