Sotheby's, the renowned New York auction house specializing in art and historical artifacts, announced that a stone tablet engraved with the Ten Commandments sold for $5 million at auction on Wednesday.
The impressive sale price was achieved despite doubts over the authenticity of the tablet. While no one has claimed it to be the original biblical stone tablet, some experts have questioned its provenance, which is said to date between 300 and 800 AD.
Another point of controversy is that the 52-kilogram (115-pound) slab, supposedly discovered in 1913 in what is now Israel, only features nine of the Ten Commandments revered by both Jews and Christians.
However, enthusiasm around the tablet remained strong, with bids eventually reaching $4.2 million. The final sale, including fees, amounted to $5 million.
Sharon Liberman Mintz, a Judaica specialist at Sotheby's, discussed the significance of the piece, noting that it is one of the oldest known tablets of the Ten Commandments. He described it as an “exciting” object and added: “There is no other stone like it in private hands.” Mintz had been working with the artifact since it was displayed at Sotheby's on December 9 in New York City.
Despite the doubts, the auction house initially expected the tablet to sell for between $1 million and $2 million. Its high price surprised many, especially considering that it does not contain the commandment not to take the name of the Lord in vain.
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The tablet was discovered during excavations of a railway line and bears Paleo-Hebrew writing. According to Sotheby's, it was privately owned until an archaeologist from Israel recognized its historical value and purchased it. 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 emphasized that the tablet has been examined by leading academics and published in several academic papers. However, several experts are skeptical about its origin.
“Maybe it's absolutely authentic,” said Brian Daniels of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center in Philadelphia. “Objects from this region of the world are plagued by fakes.”
Christopher Rollston, professor of biblical and Near Eastern languages at George Washington University, expressed further concerns, saying: “There is no way to know the age of the inscription. “We have no documentation from 1913, and since looters and forgers often make up these types of stories to lend credibility to an inscription, this could be a tale made up by a forger or antiques dealer.”
Newslodge