18th-Century Jewish Marriage Contract Brings Record Price
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JERUSALEM — An 18th-Century Hebrew-language Jewish marriage contract set a world auction record of $47,300 when sold Friday, Sotheby’s auctioneers said.
Done in Padua, Italy, in 1732, the beautifully illustrated contract, for a couple who never wed, was sold to an American collector, Sotheby’s spokeswoman D’este Bond said.
The contract was prepared for a prospective bride by Italian Jewish poet Moshe Haim Luzzato, but the young woman’s parents forbade the marriage, and the poet left for Ottoman-ruled Palestine, Bond said.
About 350 items fetched close to $1.1 million at Sotheby’s third auction of Judaica art, books and manuscripts since 1985, she said.
There was also bidding from Europe, the United States and Australia.
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