Kerry hotel owner sells world’s oldest Hebrew bible for $38m (€35.1m)

The Codex Sassoon is more than 1,000 years old, dating from the late 9th or early 10th century, and was sold for $38.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday.

The billionaire Swiss-Lebanese investor, also known as Jacqui Beaucaire is the main investor in the consortium which purchased the hotel. Kenmare man Tony Daly is the managing director of the consortium and hotel.

Mr Safra has strong connections with Ireland and Kerry and also owns Garinish Ireland in Kerry.

The Codex Sassoon, described as “the most influential book in human history”, was put on auction at Sotheby’s auction, with a guide price of between $30 million and $50 million, and sold for $38m making it one of the most valuable manuscripts ever to be sold at an auction.

Codex Sassoon, is the earliest surviving example of a single codex containing all the books of the Hebrew Bible with their punctuation, vowels, and accents.

The Codex Sassoon was bought by US lawyer and former ambassador Alfred Moses for the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The Codex Sassoon is thought to have been written about 1,100 years ago and is the the earliest surviving example of a single manuscript containing all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible.

The codex is named for its prominent modern owner, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) and its most recent owner Swiss investor Jacqui Safra, bought it for £2m ($2.5m) at auction in London in 1989.

Despite being recognised for its importance by scholars for generations, the book has not been in the public eye for centuries until earlier this year when it was exhibited for the first time in 40 years at Sotheby’s in London and also in Tel Aviv, Dallas and Los Angeles before the auction in New York earlier this week.