Last month’s sale in New York of the Codex Sassoon, the oldest Hebrew Bible, for $38million, made it the most valuable manuscript ever to be offered at auction: shedding renewed light on a collecting category as old as auction houses themselves. Indeed, in 1744 Sotheby’s began ...
Last month’s sale in New York of the Codex Sassoon, the oldest Hebrew Bible, for $38million, made it the most valuable manuscript ever to be offered at auction: shedding renewed light on a collecting category as old as auction houses themselves. Indeed, in 1744 Sotheby’s began as an auctioneer exclusively of books, the then repository of all knowledge. Our own Gstaad habituée, HRH The Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, selected the Swiss auction house Piguet in Geneva to part with her own historic collection spanning centuries from the royal courts amongst others of both Belgium and Italy–the House of Savoy having reigned over a millennium. Therein literature of the 20th century figured prominently, including works by Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) inscribed by the author to HM Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians (1876–1965).
BY ALAN NAZAR IPEKIAN
HRH The Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy is the daughter of HM Umberto II (1904–1983), last King of Italy, and his wife HM Queen Marie José (1906–2001), daughter of HM King Albert I of the Belgians (1875–1934) and HM Queen Elisabeth, Princess of Bavaria. The author of books on court life as well as royal taste in jewels and the decorative arts, she is a graduate of both the University of Geneva and the École du Louvre in Paris; a bibliophile like her late father whose house in Portugal while in exile was lined with bookshelves.
