A 15th-century illustrated volume of the Mishneh Torah that was to be the star of a Sotheby’s auction on Monday was withdrawn from the sale and bought jointly by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Widely considered one of the finest illuminated Hebrew manuscripts ever created, it was from the collection of the New York philanthropists Judy and Michael Steinhardt, who are selling their world-class collection of Judaica at Sotheby’s on Monday.
The Mishneh Torah includes six large painted panels decorated with precious pigments and gold leaf as well as 41 smaller illustrations with gold lettering on the opening words of each chapter. Executed in the style of Northern Italian Renaissance miniature painting, the Torah was restored by conservators at the Israel Museum, where it has been on long-term loan since 2007 and on view there since 2010.
Made up of 14 books of the Jewish legal code, the Steinhardts’ volume of the Mishneh Torah includes Books 7 through 14, part of a two-volume set created in Northern Italy and completed in 1457. The first is in the collection of the Vatican library. While the price the museums paid has not been disclosed, Sotheby’s estimated it would sell for $4.5 million to $6 million.
