Sep 25 2007
“What is he selling, the Magna Carta?”
If you have a spare $20-30 million dollars in your pocket this fall, the Ross Perot Foundation is selling its copy of the Magna Carta.
It is the document that laid the foundation for fundamental principles of English law. Angry colonists complained long before the Boston Tea Party that King George III had violated it. The men who drafted the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights borrowed from it.
It is Magna Carta, agreed to by King John of England in 1215 and revised and reaffirmed through the 13th century. The tail dangling off the page is a royal seal.
And it is about to go on sale.
This is the only copy of the Magna Carta currently in the United States, and until last week it was on display in Washington DC at the National Archives, right next to the Declaration of Independence. I hope that the buyer realizes that this document was in excellent hands at NARA, and that they will hopefully lend it to NARA or a similar institution again so that it can be cared for properly and made visible to the public.