$30.8m for Da Vinci

THE HIGHEST price yet paid on auction for a manuscript was for The Codex Leicester, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, written in his mirror cursive, which sold at a Christie’s auction in 1994 for $30.8 million.

The Codex Leicester, a 72-page collection of scientific writings by Da Vinci from 1510, was named after Thomas Coke, later Earl of Leicester, who bought it in 1719.

Who paid over $30m for it? Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. – Auctions Writer