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Agence France-Presse

A stone tablet carrying engravings of the Ten Commandments sold for US$5 million at auction on Wednesday, Sotheby’s announced.
The high figure was notched despite questions around the tablet’s authenticity: no one has claimed it is the original, of Biblical fame, but some experts expressed doubts around its purported provenance, dating between the years AD300 and 800.
Another ding against the 52kg (115 pound) slab, said to be discovered in 1913 in what is now Israel, is that it contains only nine of the 10 commandments considered holy by both Jews and Christians.
Excitement around it prevailed, however, as bids eventually raced up to US$4.2 million, with the final sale coming in at US$5 million including fees.
Those shocked at the price can swear freely: the tablet does not contain the commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain.
The New York auction house had expected it to sell for US$1-2 million.

The tablet was said to be discovered during excavations for the construction of a rail line. It carries a Paleo-Hebrew script, and, according to Sotheby’s, was held privately until an archeologist living in Israel realised its importance and bought it.
“It’s been thrilling to work with this object of antiquity. There is no other stone like it in private hands,” said Sharon Liberman Mintz, a specialist on Jewish texts for Sotheby’s.
The slab eventually made its way to the Living Torah Museum in Brooklyn before being sold to a private collector.
In a statement, Sotheby’s said that the tablet has been studied “by leading scholars in the field and published in numerous scholarly articles and books”.
However, multiple experts told The New York Times they had questions about its origins.
“Maybe it’s absolutely authentic,” said Brian Daniels, of the Penn Cultural Heritage Centre in Philadelphia, though he cautioned: “Objects from this region of the world are rife with fakes.”
“There is no way” the age of the inscription can be known, Christopher Rollston, a professor of Biblical and near eastern languages and civilisations at George Washington University, told the paper.
“We have zero documentation from 1913, and since pillagers and forgers often concoct such stories to give an inscription an aura of authenticity, this story could actually just be a tall tale told by a forger or some antiquities dealer.”


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Sotheby’s workers hold what is said to be the oldest known inscribed stone tablet of the Ten Commandments during a press preview in New York on December 9. Photo: AFP

The slab, said to be discovered in 1913 in what is now Israel, contains only nine of the 10 commandments. Photo: AFP

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Cultural heritage preservation scholar Katharyn Hanson (right) and DePaul University professor Patty Gerstenblith look at the Gilgamesh tablet at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

epa09484337 Ambassador of Iraq to the United States Fareed Yasseen (L) shakes hands with Steven Francis (R), Executive Associate Director, Homeland Security Investigations at the US Department of Homeland Secutity; in front of the Gilgamesh tablet and Sumerian ram at a repatriation ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, USA, 23 September 2021. The 3,500-year-old cuneiform clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia had been smuggled into the United States and is being returned to Iraq after being forfeited by Hobby Lobby after being seized by federal authorities. A Sumerian ram sculpture from approximately 3,000 B.C. is also officailly being returned to Iraq in the ceremony. EPA-EFE/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

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The high figure was notched despite questions around the slab’s authenticity, with some experts expressing doubts about its origins


The high figure was notched despite questions around the slab’s authenticity, with some experts expressing doubts about its origins.
