Investor Griffin buys rare copy of US Constitution for $43.2 million at Sotheby’s auction

Billionaire investor Kenneth Griffin outbid on online cryptocurrency group to buy a first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution for $43.2 million at Sotheby’s on Thursday, the auction house and a spokesman for Griffin said on Friday.

The hammer came down after an eight-minute bidding battle on the telephones and set a world auction record for any book, manuscript, historical document or printed text, Sotheby’s said. Griffin, who founded $43 billion investment firm Citadel, is a prominent art collector and plans to loan the work to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, Arkansas, where it will be on display.