The sum represents a record for a manuscript book.
The Sassoon Codex, named after its best-known owner, David Solomon Sassoon (died 1942), was purchased by former U.S. ambassador and philanthropist Alfred Moses and his family, "for the benefit of the American Friends of the ANU-Museum of the Jewish People and was donated" to the institution, Sotheby's said in a statement.
The Bible, which dates from the tenth century AD, or even the end of the ninth century, had been exhibited before the sale in this museum located on the campus of Tel Aviv University.
According to Sotheby's, "the hammer fell after a four-minute battle between two determined buyers."
This Sassoon codex, in a visibly exceptional state of preservation and missing only a few pages, binds 24 books of the Hebrew Bible from the famous scrolls of the Dead Sea Scrolls dating from the 3rd century BC.
"This Bible was written around the year 900, in Israel or Syria," Sharon Mintz, a specialist in Judaism texts at Sotheby's, told AFP.
A deed of sale shows that it was sold in the year 1000 and kept in the synagogue of Makisin in northeastern Syria (present-day Markada) until about the year 1400.
"The manuscript then disappeared for about 500 years and reappeared in 1929 when it was offered for sale to David Solomon Sassoon, one of the greatest collectors of Hebrew manuscripts," Mintz said.
© 2023 AFP