Jefferson Letter Fetches Record $396,000 Price
NEW YORK — A letter written by former President Thomas Jefferson condemning prejudice against Jews was purchased by an unidentified collector Wednesday for a world record $396,000, Sotheby’s said.
Jefferson’s one-page letter was sent in 1818 to a Jewish diplomat, 42 years after Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and was not printed in any previous editions of his letters.
The previous record, both for a letter and a presidential document, was $297,000 paid in 1984 by Publisher Malcolm Forbes for one of 48 printed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln.
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