She sold the Constitution
We read of the death of Dorothy Tapper Goldman a while ago, and while we'd never heard of her before, she's not one we're soon to forget.
Ms. Goldman, a philanthropist and major collector of American historical documents, sold her original printed copy of the U.S. Constitution for a record-setting $43.2 million in 2021. Her husband had bought it in 1998 for $165,000.
The sale of the document, at Sotheby's in New York, generated widespread attention for three reasons:
-It is one of only 13 known copies of the first printing of the Constitution in 1787, and one of only two copies held privately.
-The winning bid remains a record for a document, manuscript or book sold at auction.
-And the purchaser was Ken Griffin, the billionaire chief executive of the hedge fund Citadel, who outbid Constitution DAO, a group of cryptocurrency fans who had conducted a frenzied online crowdfunding campaign that in a single week raised $40 million.
Ms. Goldman used the proceeds from the sale to establish the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation, which has made substantial contributions to the New York Historical Society, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She also supported the Grolier Society of the City of New York, and the Museum of the American Revolution in New York.
Ms. Goldman and her husband, S. Howard Goldman, a New York real estate developer who was also a collector of American historical documents, each sold the bulk of their trove of rare American documents. Mr. Goldman, who died in 1997, sold much of his collection, except the Constitution. Ms. Goldman became an avid collector herself and auctioned off all of her collection in 2021 -- including the copy of the Constitution.
-New York Times
