Stone tablet engraved with Ten Commandments sells for $6.8 million
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The tablet carries a Paleo-Hebrew script, and was held privately until an archaeologist living in Israel realised its importance and purchased it.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK - A stone tablet carrying engravings of the Ten Commandments sold for US$5 million (S$6.8 million) at an auction on Dec 18, Sotheby’s announced.
The high figure was notched despite questions around the tablet’s authenticity: No one has claimed it is the Biblical original, but some experts expressed doubts around its purported provenance, dating between the years AD300 and AD800.
Another ding against the 52kg slab, said to have been discovered in 1913 in what is now Israel, is that it contains only nine of the 10 commandments considered holy by both Jews and Christians.
Excitement around it prevailed, however, as bids eventually raced up to US$4.2 million, with the final sale coming in at US$5 million including fees.
Those shocked at the price can swear freely: The tablet does not contain the commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain.
The New York auction house had expected the tablet to sell for US$1 million to US$2 million.
It was said to have been discovered during excavations for the construction of a railway line.
The tablet carries a Palaeo-Hebrew script, and, according to Sotheby’s, was held privately until an archaeologist living in Israel realised its importance and purchased it.
“It’s been thrilling to work with this object of antiquity,” Ms Sharon Liberman Mintz, a specialist on Jewish texts for Sotheby’s, told AFP. “There is no other stone like it in private hands.”
The slab eventually made its way to the Living Torah Museum in Brooklyn before being sold to a private collector.
In a statement, Sotheby’s said the tablet has been studied “by leading scholars in the field and published in numerous scholarly articles and books”.
However, multiple experts told The New York Times they had questions about its origins.
“Maybe it’s absolutely authentic,” said Mr Brian Daniels from the Penn Cultural Heritage Centre in Philadelphia, though he cautioned: “Objects from this region of the world are rife with fakes.”
“There is no way” the age of the inscription can be known, Dr Christopher Rollston, a professor of Biblical and Near Eastern languages and civilisations at George Washington University, told the paper.
“We have zero documentation from 1913, and since pillagers and forgers often concoct such stories to give an inscription an aura of authenticity, this story could actually just be a tall tale told by a forger or some antiquities dealer.” AFP
