ARTnews Top 200 collector Ken Griffin has quietly acquired another rare first printing of the US Constitution, bringing the total in his collection to two—the only copies still held in private hands, according to the New York Times.
The billionaire Citadel founder first made headlines in 2021 when he paid $43.2 million at Sotheby’s for a copy of the 1787 document, outbidding the cryptocurrency collective Constitution DAO in one of the stranger bidding battles in recent auction history. The newly acquired example, known as the Van Sinderen copy, had been slated for auction at Sotheby’s in 2022 with a $20 million–$30 million estimate before the sale was abruptly pulled. Griffin ultimately secured it through a private deal, though the price was not disclosed.
Only 14 copies from the original 500 printings are known to survive, most of them held by institutions, and just a handful have come to market over the past two centuries. Griffin’s earlier purchase is already on view at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The new one will go on public display starting May 27 at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York, timed to the lead-up to the United States’s 250th anniversary.
The document will headline an exhibition titled “The Promise of Liberty,” which will include other foundational texts, from an early printing of the Bill of Rights to a draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The show is part of a broader wave of programming tied to the anniversary, including a planned flotilla of nearly 100 tall ships and naval vessels set to arrive in New York Harbor on July 4.
In a statement, Griffin framed the purchase less as a trophy acquisition than a public gesture, calling the Constitution “one of humanity’s greatest achievements” and emphasizing the importance of widening access ahead of the anniversary celebrations.
