Illuminating London: £11m renaissance manuscript set to go on public view

The world’s most valuable illuminated manuscript went on show in London today before auction, where it is expected to fetch up to £11 million.

The Rothschild Prayerbook will be sold at Christie’s New York in January, nearly 15 years after it set the world record at auction for such treasures.

The collection of texts, prayers and psalms, known as a book of hours, was made in the Netherlands in about 1505. It is one of the finest manuscripts in private hands.

It was part of the famous collec-

tion of the Viennese branch of the Rothschild family during the 19th century,

It was confiscated from Baron Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. After the war, the new Austrian government forbade the export of important cultural artworks.

The book was returned to the Rothschild family in 1999, who sold it in London for a record auction price of £8.5 million.

Nicholas Hall, international co-chairman of Old Masters at Christie’s, said the auction house was honoured to be entrusted with its sale for a second time.

“Every aspect of this book of hours — from the quality of the parchment to the wealth and refinement of the decoration — marks the Rothschild Prayerbook as one of the most prestigious and exquisite examples of Flemish manuscript illumination,” he said.

The manuscript is closely related to another book of hours in the British Library. It will be the centrepiece of an auction of early treasures, and can be viewed at Christie’s in King Street, St James’s, until Monday.