Sotheby’s, a New York-based auction house, said on Tuesday that an official first printing of the U.S. Constitution will be auctioned next month. The historic document will be auctioned off during a special live sale on December 13.
It is one of just two copies in private hands and one of only 13 copies believed to exist, according to Sotheby’s. The remaining eleven are in government collections.
This specific document is being auctioned for the first time in over 125 years, according to Sotheby’s, which expects that it will fetch between $20 and $30 million.
It will be sold barely over a year after Sotheby’s sold the only other privately owned first-edition copy, the Goldman Constitution. Sotheby’s stated that it set a record for any book, manuscript, or printed material sold at auction, fetching $43.2 million in November.
Richard Austin, global head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, said in a statement that last year’s record sale of the historical document was evidence of its “enduring value and influence,” and that there are high hopes for the sale of the remaining copy.
“A year after the record-breaking sale, we hope that the extraordinary opportunity to acquire one of only two privately held copies of the Constitution will elicit a response comparable to that of a year ago,” Austin said.