The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 52, December 23, 2007, Article 19

MAGNA CARTA TO RETURN TO NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Washington D.C. got a double dose of good news this week: 
"Washington business titan David Rubenstein said yesterday 
he would return the only copy of the Magna Carta in the 
United States to the National Archives, just hours after 
paying $21.3 million for the 710-year-old document at an 
auction in New York.

"Rubenstein, co-founder of the D.C.-based Carlyle Group, 
bought the one-page, 2,500-word tract at Sotheby's late 
Tuesday, and said he would place it on permanent loan to 
the National Archives.

"The document is one of only 17 copies of the 13th-century 
agreement known to be in existence. Its previous owner was 
Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who had loaned it to the 
National Archives after acquiring it from a British family 
in 1984.

"Translation: Money changes hands. Document stays put.

"'It's still at Sotheby's at the moment, but I've been in 
touch with the National Archives, and I'll leave it to their 
experts to bring it back,' Rubenstein said in a telephone 
interview yesterday from New York. 'I'm not going to get 
in a U-Haul and drive it down there myself. . . . It was 
surprising to me that something this important might leave 
our country. I thought it would be a good thing if I could 
play a role and keep it in the country.'

"Rubenstein said yesterday his purchase was largely due to 
chance. Traveling abroad last week, he said, he spotted a 
newspaper story about the impending sale. He went to look 
at the document on display at the auction house Monday 
evening, then returned the next night to the auction.

"'I made it by five minutes. The traffic was terrible. 
The bidding started about two minutes later. It was the 
kind of thing that if I had spent a lot of time thinking 
about it, I might have done something different.' "

To read the complete article, see: 
Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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