Rare Judaica Items From Israeli Millionaire’s Biblical Collection for Sale at Sotheby’s

Decorated Esther scroll from Baghdad, Iraq, circa 1850 – pre-auction: $20,000–$30,000 (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Back in November, you had the chance to bid on “The Ten Commandments.” This month, you have access to everything else, courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

On Dec. 15, the auction house will be putting a number of rare and sacred Jewish prayer books, Torahs, paintings, and Hanukkah accoutrement on the block as part of its “Important Judaica” sale. Serious collectors will be particularly interested in the 176 lots from the estate of Israeli multimillionaire Shlomo Moussaieff, who was world renowned for his high-end jewelry business (clients included Zsa Zsa Gabor and Frank Sinatra) and sprawling collection of biblical artifacts (at his death, it included some 60,000 artifacts).

RealClearLife has curated its own list of lots from the sale, and we’ve included the pre-auction estimates below. For more on the auction, click here.

Simeon Solomon, ‘Carrying the Scrolls of the Law,’ 1871 – pre-auction estimate: $150,000–$250,000 (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Decorated Ketubbah from Livorno, Italy, circa 1698 – pre-auction: $50,000–$70,000 (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

An evening service prayer book for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur from 1761 – pre-auction estimate: $180,000–$240,000 (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Polish brass synagogue Hanukkah lamp, circa 1890 – pre-auction estimate: $30,000–$50,000 (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Silver hanging Sabbath lamp, Gottfried Bartermann, Augsburg, Germany, 1761-63 – pre-auction estimate: $250,000–$350,000 (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

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