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The two-foot (61
cm) square slab of white marble that weighs about 115 pounds (50
kg) was sold in Beverly Hills, California, by Dallas-based
Heritage Auctions to a buyer who not to be immediately
identified.
The tablet was put up for sale by Rabbi Shaul Deutsch, founder
of the Living Torah Museum, in Brooklyn, New York, with the
stipulation that the buyer must put it on public display, the
auction house said.
The tablet is chiseled with 20 lines of Samaritan script with
principles that are fundamental to Judaism and Christianity. The
inscription lists nine of the 10 commandments in the Book of
Exodus, omitting "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain" and replacing it with a rule for Samaritan
worshippers, the auction house said.
It was probably chiseled during the late Roman or Byzantine era,
between 300 and 500 A.D., and marked the entrance of an ancient
synagogue that was likely destroyed by the Romans, according to
the auction house.
The tablet was discovered in 1913 during excavation for a
railroad line near the modern city of Yavneh in Western Israel.
Someone, possibly a construction worker, acquired it and set it
in a courtyard where it remained until 1943 when it was acquired
by an archeologist, who owned it until his death in 2000.
Deutsch acquired the tablet for temporary display through an
agreement with the Israel Antiquities Authority and then bought
it outright after a legal settlement, Heritage officials said.
Deutsch said he wished to sell the tablet and other artifacts
from his collection chronicling Jewish life and history back to
antiquity to raise money for a makeover of his museum. He said
he plans to transform the museum with more hands-on exhibits to
attract younger visitors.
“The new owner is under obligation to display the tablet for the
benefit of the public,” David Michaels, director of antiquities
for Heritage Auctions, said in a statement.
Two phone bidders pushed the sale price up from an opening live
bid of $300,000, Heritage officials said.
(Reporting by Marice Richter in Dallas; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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