Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Torah

Full Text:

Torah Crown Sells For A Record $1,322,500

NEW YORK CITY -- In a standing-room-only salesroom, a gold and jeweled Torah

Crown, one of only two known to exist, fetched $1,322,500, setting a record

price for a piece of Judaica metalwork.

The crown was purchased by a private collector bidding on behalf of Somerset

House, the museum in London.

The sale totaled $4,125,165, well over the pre-sale estimate.

"We are absolutely thrilled with the overall success of the Judaica sale,"

commented Jennifer Roth and Kevin Tierney, specialists. "The crown is a great

work of art and it is unbelievably rare in the field of Judaica."

Over half of the top lots sold for well over their pre-sale estimate.

Highlights included an illuminated manuscript containing the prayers for

Seder, (est $30/50,000), which sold for $99,300; Jan Baptiste Tetar Van

Elven's "Dutch Interior," from the Nineteenth Century (est $50/70,000), which

sold for $90,500 and an important illuminated vellum manuscript (est

$50/70,000), which sold for $90,500.