The first-ever written copy of Shakespeare’s plays was sold Wednesday for $9.97 million at auction in New York, setting a new record for a work of literature. It is called the First Folio and exceeded by far the estimated range of $4-6 million set by Christie’s, which held the auction.
According to the head of research, Dr Paul Edmondson of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, there are only 6 copies of Shakespeare’s first-ever collection of plays known to exist. The collection was estimated to sell at $4million, however, was priced over and above in bidding between 2 buyers, ultimately purchased Stephan Loewentheil via phone.
It was sold by Mills College in Oakland, California – a private college that has owned it since the 1960s. The identity of the buyer was not immediately known.
The First Folio brought together 36 plays, 18 of which would otherwise not have been recorded. Without its publication, there would be no copy of such plays as Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar and The Tempest. Although around 750 copies of the First Folio were produced, just 235 are known to have survived to the present day. Of these, only 56 are considered to be complete, with almost all of them now held by institutions in the US and UK, according to Christie’s, whose sale catalogue said the item’s “extraordinary rarity … cannot be overstated.