Monday, Dec. 12, 2011
THEN
Dec. 12, 1980, a notebook written by Leonardo Da Vinci is purchased for $5,126,000—the highest price ever paid for a book at the time—by wealthy American oil tycoon Armand Hammer at an auction block in England. In 1712, the notebook is called the Codex Leicester, named after the first earl of Leicester, Thomas Coke, who purchases it and keeps it at his estate in England, where it stays for centuries. In 1980, the current Lord Coke auctions it in order to cover inheritance taxes on the estate’s art collection. After Hammer purchases Da Vinci’s notebook in 1980, he renames it the Codex Hammer and adds it to his extensive art collection. The notebook consists of 72 pages with notes written by Da Vinci in his mirrored script and has detailed drawings on various subjects with many relating to water. Upon Hammer’s death in 1990, the manuscripts are left to the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
NOW
Today, Da Vinci’s famous manuscript is owned by American billionaire and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates. Gates purchased the notebook in 1994 in New York for $30 million after the museum sold it to cover legal costs incurred by a lawsuit filed by one of Hammer’s heirs. The price paid by Gates for Da Vinci’s notebook makes it the most expensive book in history to date. Gates changed the name of the back to the Codex Leicester and loans it to museums for public display.
