Rare $11mn Judaica collection to go under the hammer

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Published time: January 11, 2013 09:21
Edited time: January 11, 2013 14:20

A selection of rare objects of Jewish history and culture – over 500-pieces – will be put up for sale in New York. The vast collection “has not come on the market in half a century” and is expected to fetch up to $11 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

­The Judaica collection, which belongs to philanthropist and former Wall Street money manager Michael Steinhardt, reportedly spans thousands of years, featuring objects from every corner of the globe.

"This is an incredibly exciting event in the field of Jewish art. I've been immersed in the world of Jewish material and culture for the last two decades and a collection of this scope and scale and quality has not come on the market in half a century," the curator of the Judaica collection and museum at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, Elke Deitsch, told AP.

Among the most sought-after lots is a Torah from the 15th Century, worth up to $6 million.

The manuscript, known as the Frankfurt Mishneh Torah, has text by the Middle Age Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides. It is the second of a two-volume manuscript. The first volume has its home in the Vatican.

"Now, at 72, it is time for the collection to be passed onto a new generation, in the hopes that it will encourage them in turn to discover a rich Jewish heritage and the joy of owning a piece of the past," Steinhardt said in a release issued by Sotheby's.

"What really sets this collection apart is the breadth, the astonishing variety of textiles, of silver, ceremonial art that covers every geographical aspect of the Jewish world and centuries and centuries of Jewish history," senior consultant for Judaica at Sotheby's and curator of The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, Sharon Liberman Mintz, told AP.

Among the highlights is a 12th-century North German bronze lion aquamanile, a jug used for washing hands probably used for religious ceremonies.

The piece has a medieval Hebrew inscription and has been estimated between $200,000 and $400,000.

"It's an extraordinarily important article of Judaica because of all the Jews' journeys and difficulties that they encountered in various countries in Europe – the expulsions – there are literally only a handful of Medieval objects of Judaica left in the world," Mintz explained.

Sotheby's is scheduled to auction the collection on April 29 after exhibiting it in Moscow and Jerusalem.

Steinhardt is known worldwide as a great supporter of Jewish art. The NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is named after him. He also started the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life seeking to revitalize Jewish identity through educational and cultural initiatives.