1980 : Da Vinci notebook sells for over $5 million
On this day in 1980, American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000
at auction for a notebook containing writings by the legendary artist
Leonardo da Vinci.
The manuscript, written around 1508, was one of some 30 similar books
da Vinci produced during his lifetime on a variety of subjects. It
contained 72 loose pages featuring some 300 notes and detailed
drawings, all relating to the common theme of water and how it moved.
Experts have said that da Vinci drew on it to paint the background of
his masterwork, the Mona Lisa. The text, written in brown ink and
chalk, read from right to left, an example of da Vinci's favored
mirror-writing technique. The painter Giuseppi Ghezzi discovered the
notebook in 1690 in a chest of papers belonging to Guglielmo della
Porto, a 16th-century Milanese sculptor who had studied Leonardo's
work. In 1717, Thomas Coke, the first earl of Leicester, bought the
manuscript and installed it among his impressive collection of art at
his family estate in England.
More than two centuries later, the notebook--by now known as the
Leicester Codex--showed up on the auction block at Christie's in
London when the current Lord Coke was forced to sell it to cover
inheritance taxes on the estate and art collection. In the days before
the sale, art experts and the press speculated that the notebook would
go for $7 to $20 million. In fact, the bidding started at $1.4 million
and lasted less than two minutes, as Hammer and at least two or three
other bidders competed to raise the price $100,000 at a time. The
$5.12 million price tag was the highest ever paid for a manuscript at
that time; a copy of the legendary Gutenberg Bible had gone for only
$2 million in 1978. "I'm very happy with the price. I expected to pay
more," Hammer said later. "There is no work of art in the world I
wanted more than this." Lord Coke, on the other hand, was only
"reasonably happy" with the sale; he claimed the proceeds would not be
sufficient to cover the taxes he owed.
Hammer, the president of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, renamed his
prize the Hammer Codex and added it to his valuable collection of art.
When Hammer died in 1990, he left the notebook and other works to the
Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center at the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Several years later, the museum
offered the manuscript for sale, claiming it was forced to take this
action to cover legal costs incurred when the niece and sole heir of
Hammer's late wife, Frances, sued the estate claiming Hammer had
cheated Frances out of her rightful share of his fortune. On November
11, 1994, the Hammer Codex was sold to an anonymous bidder--soon
identified as Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft--at a
New York auction for a new record high price of $30.8 million. Gates
restored the title of Leicester Codex and has since loaned the
manuscript to a number of museums for public display.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1980 : Da Vinci notebook sells for over $5 million
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52287
1901 : Marconi sends first Atlantic wireless transmission
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7109
1913 : Mona Lisa recovered in Florence
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5593
1917 : Father Flanagan establishes Boys Town
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5594
1937 : USS Panay sunk by Japanese
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5595
#########################################
On this day in 1980, American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000
at auction for a notebook containing writings by the legendary artist
Leonardo da Vinci.
The manuscript, written around 1508, was one of some 30 similar books
da Vinci produced during his lifetime on a variety of subjects. It
contained 72 loose pages featuring some 300 notes and detailed
drawings, all relating to the common theme of water and how it moved.
Experts have said that da Vinci drew on it to paint the background of
his masterwork, the Mona Lisa. The text, written in brown ink and
chalk, read from right to left, an example of da Vinci's favored
mirror-writing technique. The painter Giuseppi Ghezzi discovered the
notebook in 1690 in a chest of papers belonging to Guglielmo della
Porto, a 16th-century Milanese sculptor who had studied Leonardo's
work. In 1717, Thomas Coke, the first earl of Leicester, bought the
manuscript and installed it among his impressive collection of art at
his family estate in England.
More than two centuries later, the notebook--by now known as the
Leicester Codex--showed up on the auction block at Christie's in
London when the current Lord Coke was forced to sell it to cover
inheritance taxes on the estate and art collection. In the days before
the sale, art experts and the press speculated that the notebook would
go for $7 to $20 million. In fact, the bidding started at $1.4 million
and lasted less than two minutes, as Hammer and at least two or three
other bidders competed to raise the price $100,000 at a time. The
$5.12 million price tag was the highest ever paid for a manuscript at
that time; a copy of the legendary Gutenberg Bible had gone for only
$2 million in 1978. "I'm very happy with the price. I expected to pay
more," Hammer said later. "There is no work of art in the world I
wanted more than this." Lord Coke, on the other hand, was only
"reasonably happy" with the sale; he claimed the proceeds would not be
sufficient to cover the taxes he owed.
Hammer, the president of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, renamed his
prize the Hammer Codex and added it to his valuable collection of art.
When Hammer died in 1990, he left the notebook and other works to the
Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center at the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Several years later, the museum
offered the manuscript for sale, claiming it was forced to take this
action to cover legal costs incurred when the niece and sole heir of
Hammer's late wife, Frances, sued the estate claiming Hammer had
cheated Frances out of her rightful share of his fortune. On November
11, 1994, the Hammer Codex was sold to an anonymous bidder--soon
identified as Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft--at a
New York auction for a new record high price of $30.8 million. Gates
restored the title of Leicester Codex and has since loaned the
manuscript to a number of museums for public display.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1980 : Da Vinci notebook sells for over $5 million
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52287
1901 : Marconi sends first Atlantic wireless transmission
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7109
1913 : Mona Lisa recovered in Florence
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5593
1917 : Father Flanagan establishes Boys Town
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5594
1937 : USS Panay sunk by Japanese
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5595
#########################################
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