The Columbus Letter, $3.9 million, Christie’s

The Columbus Letter, a 15th-century pamphlet announcing Christopher Columbus’s first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, sold for $3.9 million at an auction held on October 19th by Christie’s in New York. The document, in Latin translated from Spanish, was eight pages. It was printed in Rome about 40 years after the commercialization of the printing press and was a kind of press release, spreading the news about
Columbus’s voyage across Europe.