UPI - Declaration of Independence on sale online

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Slowpoke_Rodrigo

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STORY

Declaration of Independence on sale online
Tuesday, 23 May 2000 11:55 (ET)

BOSTON, May 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Declaration of Independence is about to
be sold online.

Sotheby's auction house displayed the rare first printing of the document
to the media in Boston on Tuesday.

Sothebys said it expects the "most important printed piece of paper in the
world" to fetch up to $6 million when it goes up for bids.

The copy for sale was printed on the night of July 4, 1776. Sothebys said
the document had been discovered in the back of a picture frame bought at a
flea market for $4.

The auction on www.Sothebys.com is to take place from June 29 from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m.

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Slowpoke Rodrigo...he pack a gon...

"That which binds us together is infinitely greater than that on which we disagree" - Neal Knox

I'll see you at the TFL End Of Summer Meet!
 
Personally, I'd like to see the government pony up the money, regardless of how much it would cost. Then display it in the appropriate setting.
 
And why again, is that document up for sale?

Best Regards,
Don

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The most foolish mistake we could make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms; history shows that all conquerers who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.
Adolf Hitler
 
I remember some TV coverage when it was found. It was stated then that when the Declaration of Independence was written, there were several "originals". Makes sense; no Xerox machines, then.

I may be in error, but besides the one at Indpendence Hall in Philadelphia, there is one in either the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian--maybe both.

FWIW, Art
 
There is also a copy in the National Archives in D.C. They have it in an atomic bomb-proof glass case, and it is stored in an envirnment of some sort of gas. That is my personal shrine. I've been there twice to see it, and each time it gives me chills. Unfortunately, the original is quite faded from time and exposure. You can't really read the thing except in some parts, but it is neat nevertheless. That is the document that forever changed the dignity of mankind.
 
Bill Gates will probably buy it, integrate it into Windows 2001, and then charge the government with violating his copyright. :)

Of course, if that document had worked as well as Windows, we'd all be staring through barbed wire.
 
They cannot auction it off !! The Chinese already own it . Sorry . My mistake . I was thinking of the White House . Please continue .

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TOM
SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA
 
UPDATE

U.S. Declaration of Independence copy sold online


Updated 7:18 PM ET June 29, 2000
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare first printing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence fetched $8.14 million in an online auction Thursday, breaking the record for any sale on the Internet, Sotheby's auction house said.
Two bidders vied throughout the daylong auction, lodging a total of 29 bids on Sotheby's Web site, a spokeswoman said. The price also was the highest ever for a copy of the historic document.

The identity of the buyer and the buyer's plans for the document were set to be disclosed Friday, Sotheby's said.

Some 500 copies of the first official printing of the Declaration of Independence are believed to have been produced on July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress in Philadelphia made its official announcement of independence, Sotheby's said.

Of those, just 25 are known to survive today -- 21 possessed by institutions and four, including this one, in private hands, the auction house said.

The Founding Fathers of the United States used the document to explain eloquently their reasons for declaring independence from Britain. The document was written by Thomas Jefferson.

This copy was discovered by a man who bought a torn painting in 1989 at a Pennsylvania flea market because he liked the frame, and found that it concealed the Declaration of Independence in its backing, Sotheby's said.

It was first sold by Sotheby's in 1991 for $2.42 million, which had been the record for copies of the document until Thursday's sale.

The sale also marked the most ever paid for anything in an online auction, Sotheby's said.

The document had been owned by a small private American company, it said.

Sotheby's had estimated that it would fetch between $4 million and $6 million.

"We're elated," said David Redden, Sotheby's vice chairman and head of the its books and manuscripts division.

Redden said he served as auctioneer when the document first sold in 1991, and "this time I handed over my gavel to the Internet."

"Thinking back to 1991, it would have been considered science fiction that the next time this document sold it would have been electronically, digitally, without a human auctioneer," he said.

It was the first time that a copy of the Declaration of Independence was sold online.
 
johnbt, thanks for the tip.

STORY

Jun 30, 2000 - 09:42 AM


Lear Buy 1776 Copy of Declaration for $8.1 Million
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - Television producer Norman Lear and a partner paid $8.14 million for a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence, and Lear says going to make it the star of a patriotic road show.
Sotheby's auction house said Thursday's sale on its Web site brought the highest price for any item ever sold on the Internet and for any American historical document.

Lear, producer of such shows as "All in the Family" and "Maude," said he and Internet entrepreneur David Hayden planned to send the document on a national tour under the auspices of Lear's liberal advocacy group, People for the American Way.

"Ninety-nine percent of all Americans will never see this document," Lear said. He said it will be shown around the country in "a theatrical event that will be unashamedly patriotic." He did not elaborate.

An amateur collector found the document in 1989 hidden behind a torn painting, which he bought for $4 at an Adamstown, Pa., flea market because he wanted the frame.

In 1991, Sotheby's sold it at auction for a then-record $2.4 million to Thursday's seller: Visual Equities, a fine-art investment firm in Atlanta. It failed to sell at auction in 1993.

Lear said he had learned about the auction last week. He said he went to view the document at Sotheby's and wept when he read the opening lines of the declaration, then enlisted Hayden's help in obtaining it.

Hayden, the founder of Critical Path, an Internet messaging service, and Lear faced off with another would-be buyer, posting 29 separate bids that began at $4 million and ended at $7.4 million. Sotheby's commission brought the price to $8.14 million.

The copy was produced by John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, the night of July 4, 1776. It is one of 25 that survive from the hundreds that were printed and sent to the 13 colonies proclaiming their independence from Great Britain.

All but four of the surviving copies are in museums or public institutions.

Sotheby's had initially predicted the document would sell for between $4 million and $6 million.

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On the Net: Sotheby's auction house: http://www.sothebys.com
 
Expecting Norman Lear to present an unbiased, historically accurate version of our American heritage is like asking Adolph Hitler to host a Bar Mitzvah.
 
Saw the two buyers on TV this morning.

Norman Lear said when he heard this copy was up for sale only four blocks from his office, he went to see it.

Upon looking at it, he "wept".

The talking head asked why. Lear responded by reading the first sentence, then praising our Founding Fathers.

He then stated this copy will NOT end up on some wall in a home or museum. It will be taken all around the United States to remind people how important this Document is and what it means.

Maybe there's hope for this guy. Time will tell.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Slowpoke_Rodrigo:
Let us hope that the successful bidder is not a globalist or socialist such as Soros or Turner.[/quote]

Shame on me for discounting the power of Jefferson's prose to effect a significant emotional experience, even in the heart of a socialist.
 
Uh huh. And once again, the more I hear (or read) the worse it all sounds.

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Either you believe in the Second Amendment or you don't.
Stick it to 'em! RKBA!
 
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