Sotheby's puts up for auction the oldest stone tablet with commandments

The oldest stone tablet with the Ten Commandments, dating from 300-800 AD, will be sold at an auction in New York this month. This was announced by the auction house Sotheby's on Monday, December 9.

According to Assosiation Press, the marble slab weighing about 52 kilograms with commandments written in Paleo-Hebrew will be auctioned on December 18.

According to estimates of the auction house, the tablet is planned to be sold for $1-2 million.

The tablet was discovered during the excavation of the railroad along the southern coast of Israel in 1913 and at first was not recognized as a historically significant artifact.

The text inscribed on the slab follows biblical verses familiar to Christian and Jewish traditions, but omits the third commandment regarding mentioning the name of the Lord in vain.

Earlier, on November 8, it became known that in Moscow sold the last lifetime portrait of commander Alexander Suvorov. Estimate lot amounted to 2.5 million rubles.

Before that, November 6, in the press service of the Moscow auction house reported "Izvestia" that the auction will be exhibited works from the private collection of Countess Catherine Ribopier, wife of diplomat Alexander Ribopier and mother-in-law of Prince Nikolai Yusupov. It will include not only things acquired by her or received as a gift from her contemporaries, but also works of her own authorship.