Ken Griffin Adds a Second Rare First Printing of the US Constitution
Billionaire collector Ken Griffin has acquired another first printing of the US Constitution, bringing his total to two of the few surviving copies still in private hands, according to the New York Times. The newly acquired example, known as the Van Sinderen copy, had once been headed for Sotheby’s in 2022 with a $20 million–$30 million estimate before that sale was pulled. Griffin later secured it through a private deal; the price was not disclosed.
The purchase extends a collecting pattern that has already drawn unusual attention. In 2021, Griffin paid $43.2 million at Sotheby’s for another copy of the 1787 document, outbidding the cryptocurrency collective Constitution DAO in a bidding contest that briefly turned a foundational American text into a live-market spectacle. That earlier copy is already on view at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Only 14 copies from the original 500 printings are known to survive, and most are held by institutions. The Van Sinderen copy will go on public display at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York beginning May 27, where it will anchor an exhibition titled “The Promise of Liberty.” The show is being mounted in advance of the United States’s 250th anniversary and will include other foundational documents, among them an early printing of the Bill of Rights and a draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The museum presentation also places the acquisition within a larger civic calendar. New York is preparing for anniversary programming that includes a flotilla of nearly 100 tall ships and naval vessels expected to arrive in New York Harbor on July 4.
Griffin has framed the purchase as more than a trophy acquisition. In a statement, he called the Constitution “one of humanity’s greatest achievements” and emphasized the importance of widening access ahead of the anniversary year. For a document so rarely seen outside institutional walls, the loan turns a private holding into a public encounter — and underscores how closely the market, museums, and national memory now intersect.
