A marble tablet, considered by Sotheby’s to be the oldest in the world with the Ten Commandments engraved on it, sold for more than US$5 million, despite doubts about its authenticity. The auction took place on Wednesday at the auction house’s headquarters in New York, with fierce competition among bidders.
Weighing 52 kilos, the piece dates back, according to Sotheby’s, to the Roman-Byzantine period, between the years 300 and 800. Discovered in 1913 during work to build a railway in the territory that is now Israel, the tablet contains inscriptions in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet of nine of the Ten Commandments of the Bible and Torah.
After being displayed at the Torah Museum in Brooklyn, the piece was acquired by a private collector, its last owner before this surprising sale. Sotheby’s estimated the value of the tablet at between one and two million dollars, but the auction exceeded all expectations, settling at 5 million dollars, including costs.
