Magna Carta may fetch millions

NEW YORK — Even in the hyperbole-prone world of fine art, antiques and documents, there is the "rare," there is the "important" and there is the Magna Carta.

As rare as it is important, a 13th-century original copy of this medieval template for modern laws upholding human rights and freedoms will be sold to the highest bidder Tuesday at Sotheby's in New York. It could be yours for $20 million to $30 million.

Such a chance may never come again, said David Redden, Sotheby's vice chairman. He described the document as the most important ever to be sold at auction.

"I guess the most astonishing thing is it's here and it's for sale," Redden said. Only 17 original copies of the Magna Carta are known to survive. English archives and libraries hold 15, and Australia has one, none of which is likely ever to be sold, he said.

The document is being sold by The Perot Foundation, a philanthropy founded by Texas billionaire and former presidential candidate Ross Perot, which purchased it for $1.5 million in 1984. For about 500 years before that, the document belonged to the Brudenell family of Deene Park in Northhampshire, England.

Sotheby's is auctioning the only original copy of the manuscript that primarily has been held in private hands since it was produced by a royal scribe in 1297. That was the year the Magna Carta, originally written in 1215 and revised through the 13th century, finally was entered into English common law by King Edward I. Handwritten copies were made for distribution around the kingdom.

Written in ink on a 710-year-old sheet of animal-skin vellum and bearing the wax seal of King Edward, the manuscript has held up surprisingly well. Although it is marred by some staining and missing words, Sotheby's Magna Carta, or Great Charter, is about 14 inches wide by 16 inches high and features 2,500 Latin words densely packed into 68 lines of text. Most of it is legible, particularly if a magnifying glass is used.

Beyond England, the Magna Carta provided the foundation for legal systems throughout the world, Redden said, including those of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, former British colonies in Asia and Africa and the United States. Many of the ideas and language used in the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence find their roots in the Magna Carta.

These include the right to a speedy trial before a jury of one's peers; no taxation without representation; the concept of government of the people, by the people and for the people; the idea of government drawing power from the consent of the governed; the right of habeas corpus, which protects against unlawful imprisonment, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

Most important, the Magna Carta established the revolutionary concept that no man is above the law, even the king. In 1215, the document was forged out of outrage against the abuses of King John, a sovereign who ran roughshod over his subjects.

After a rebellion by barons, he hammered out the first version of the Magna Carta with them and signed it at Runnymede, a meadow alongside the Thames. Although it was revised over the years, the document did not become part of common law until 82 years later.

The catalyst was rebellion against another abusive king, John's grandson Edward I, who exploited his subjects, seizing goods, extorting loans and raising taxes to finance his wars of expansion.