The late Charles Ryrie's famed collection of Bibles and manuscripts, one of the largest private collections ever assembled, was recently auctioned off by Sotheby's. Many of the items sold for well over their pre-sale estimates, with the total collection fetching $7,341,818 (it had been valued at $3.5-5.4 million). Ryrie's collection included rare Greek manuscripts, a Luther vellum Bible, and pages from a Guttenberg Bible. The highest-selling item was a Wycliffe Bible which sold for $1.4 million, triple its estimated value. Many items in this auction were the first in decades to hit the open market, and thus Ryrie's splendid collection elicited much interest. While the buyers remain anonymous at this point, perhaps some of these treasures will find their way into museums so that they can be viewed by the public and studied by scholars in the future.
Off-site Links:
- https://danielbwallace.com/2016/12/06/ryries-bibles-and-manuscripts-auctioned-off/
- http://artdaily.com/news/92220/-1-7-million-Wycliffite-New-Testament-leads-Bible-Collection-of-Dr--Charles-Caldwell-Ryrie#.WE6PNFzJKcS
