Billionaire Ken Griffin, who in 2021 paid $43.2 million at auction for a first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution, has acquired two additional significant pieces of American history.
Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel and Palm Beach’s largest property owner, bought rare copies of the 13th Amendment and Emancipation Proclamation — both signed by President Abraham Lincoln — at auction at Sotheby’s New York.
Sotheby’s announced in a June 30 release that the purchases had set new auction records for the documents.
The 13th Amendment sold for $13.7 million, while the Emancipation Proclamation went for $4.4 million.
Griffin, who is building an oceanfront mansion at 60 Blossom Way in Palm Beach for his mom, Catherine Gratz Griffin, said he intends to loan the documents to a U.S. institution.
Here’s what to know about Griffin’s significant acquisitions and his philanthropic donations.
The 13th Amendment
The congressional copy of the 13th Amendment purchased by Griffin sold for an above-estimate $13.7 million, more than five times the previous auction record for a Thirteenth Amendment, Sotheby’s said.
It is one of only 15 recorded manuscript copies signed by Lincoln, and one of just nine signed by Lincoln alongside the senators and congressmen who passed it for ratification by the states. Just four of these remain in private hands, and among them, Griffin’s copy contains the most signatures from supporting legislators of any known example.
The Emancipation Proclamation
Bidders on the phone and in the room competed for theEmancipation Proclamation, which sold for a record breaking $4.4 million, Sotheby’s 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 that purpose, only 27, including Griffin’s copy, are known to survive.
A Jurassic-era stegosaurus named Apex
In July 2024, Griffin purchased a late Jurassic-era stegosaurus skeleton for a record-setting $44.6 million at a Sotheby’s auction.
The skeleton, named Apex, was discovered in May 2022 by commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper at the Morrison Formation, near Dinosaur, Colorado.
It measured 11 feet tall and 20 feet long, making it the largest nearly complete stegosaurus skeleton unearthed. Sotheby’s noted that Apex is 30% larger than Sophie, the dinosaur specimen at London’s Natural History Museum that had held the record for nearly a decade.
The roughly 140-million-year-old skeleton, which contains 254 of the species’ 319 bones, shows no signs of combat-related injury, or consumption post-mortem.
Apex is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution
Griffin outbid a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts to acquire a rare first edition of the U.S. Constitution, purchasing the document for $43.2 million from Sotheby’s in November 2021.
The previous auction record for a book or manuscript was set in 1994, when Bill Gates bought the Codex Leicester — Leonardo da Vinci’s collection of writings — at Christie’s for $30.8 million.
Griffin initially loaned his copy of the U.S. Constitution to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., for public exhibition. He recently announced he will be loaning it to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Philanthropic donations
Griffin has given millions in charitable donations to a variety of cultural institutions, both national and local.
In 2019, he gave $125 million to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, and two years later, he donated $10 million to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Locally, he donated $20 million in 2018 to the Norton Museum of Art’s capital campaign, which led the museum to name its 59,000-square-foot addition after him. More recently, he donated $7 million to the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach-led restoration of Phipps Ocean Park as well as $13 million toward the Cox Science Center and Aquarium’s expansion.
In March 2024, Griffin gave $50 million to the University of Miami’s Sylvester Cancer Center. The gift helped fund the new 12-story, 244,000-square-foot Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building.
This story was updated to add new information.
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: What to know about billionaire Ken Griffin’s noteworthy purchases and charitable donations
Reporting by Jodie Wagner, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
