Rare Book of Mormon Auctioned $97,900

Rare Book of Mormon Auctioned LDS Living Staff12/12/2007 05:06 PM MST
A first-edition Book of Mormon sold Wednesday in an auction for $97,900, it is one of only 600 remaining original copies.

The auction for the book took place in Geneva, N.Y., and closed Wednesday at noon after only being open for three minutes. The auction participants were from all over the country, including phone and absentee bidders from Calif., Arizona, and Utah.

Hessney Auction Co. hosted the auction and stated the book was printed in 1830. It was purchased in 1944 at a bookstore in Hollywood, Calif. by Harold Lundstrom, who was a music critic for the Deseret News for many years. A bookplate bearing his name is on the inside of the front cover. The sellers obtained the book from Lundstrom in 1968.

The conclusion of this auction adds to the growing list of recent sales of early Church articles. In Sept., another first-edition Book of Mormon sold for more than $105,000. And in March, a rare Hymn book and first-edition Book of Mormon each sold for $180,000.

“According to Missouri-based rare book collector John Hajicek, who owns 80 1830 editions of the Book of Mormon, 250 copies of the book are now in the hands of private collectors, 50 are owned by libraries or museums and another estimated 250 are still undiscovered,” the Deseret News stated.