A marble tablet bearing an ancient rendition of text related to the Ten Commandments has sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $5.04 million, more than twice as much as the initial highest estimate preceding the auction.
Before the tablet went under the hammer on 18 December, Sotheby’s had estimated that the tablet, which it claims dates from the late Roman-Byzantine era, would sell for anywhere between $1 million to $2 million.
The compelling artefact was promoted by the auction house as “the earliest surviving inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments” whose "text it preserves represents the spirit, precision and concision of the Decalogue in what is believed to be its earliest and original formulation”. But the "contentious" tablet drew intense scrutiny ahead of the auction sale, with scholars disputing its provenance and authenticity, reports the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
