One of only 17 existing copies of the Magna Carta was sold at auction at Sotheby's in New York Tuesday for 21.3 million dollars.
The Magna Carta was purchased by David Rubenstein, founder of the Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group. The group is considered a very secretive organization who lists former President George Bush as an adviser.
Rubenstein said he would loan the royal charter, which is dated 1297, to the US National Archives. The Archives are just 300 yards from Rubenstein's office.
Rubenstein said that the Magna Carta is one of the three most important documents to Western civilization, along with the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. The document is recognized as a vital influence to the American constitution and modern democracy.
The royal manuscript is the only one of 17 remaining examples ever likely to be sold. Most of the rest belong to Great Britain's national archives, cathedrals or universities while the only other copy outside Great Britain belongs to Australia. Last week, Oxford's world famous Bodleian Library displayed its four copies of the charter.
The Magna Carta, which bears the wax seal of King Edward I, was first issued in 1215 and confirmed as English law in 1297.
The proceeds from the sale of the Magna Carta are going to a charity set up by billionaire and two-time US presidential candidate, Ross Perot, whose foundation bought it in 1984.
The document previously belonged to the Brudenells of Northamptonshire, England, who owned it since the late 14th or early 15th centuries.
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