A rare, first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution will soon go to the highest bidder.

       Sotheby’s in mid-November will auction one of 11 surviving copies of the Constitution first printed for delegates at the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress more than 230 years ago. The auction house estimates it will fetch between $15 million and $20 million.

       Of the 11 first-edition copies, this is the only one in private hands, Sotheby’s said. The other 10 copies are housed in museums, libraries and archives.

       The document will be auctioned alongside paintings in Sotheby’s major evening art sales.

       “I think that’s our way of saying that this deserves as much attention and is as important, if not more important, than the great paintings that we will be selling at that period," said Selby Kiffer, Sotheby’s senior international specialist for Books and Manuscripts. “The Constitution, even though it’s a 234-year-old document, it’s as contemporary today as it was in 1787."

       The auction house said the document first became known to them in 1988 when a private Philadelphia collector presented it. Its history before then is unknown, but Mr. Kiffer imagines it couldn’t have traveled far outside of the city.

       Sotheby’s sold it for $165,000 in 1988 to S. Howard Goldman, a New York real-estate developer and private collector. Over the years, the edition has been loaned to museums and other institutions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York Historical Society and the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

       Dorothy Tapper Goldman, the late Mr. Goldman’s wife and a former professor, plans to use proceeds from the sale in November for her foundation, which funds grants intended to help improve the understanding of democracy.

       The document was one of Mr. Kiffer’s first major consignments at Sotheby’s. Around then, copies of the first-edition of the Declaration of Independence were sold in a similar price range. First-edition copies of the Declaration of Independence have since been sold for millions. In 2011, Sotheby’s sold a printing of the Declaration of Independence for more than $20 million.

       Those estimates, coupled with the fact that there are more first-edition copies of the Declaration of Independence and more opportunities to buy them, helped influence the new value estimates for the document, Mr. Kiffer said. A first-edition of the Constitution, he said, is much less common on the market.

       The copy is on display in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries in New York through Sunday and will be put on view in Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas before the auction later this fall.

       MINT PREMIUM See All

       Premium France recalls ambassadors to US, Australia over submarine deal

       Premium Should ESG funds be in retirement plans?

       Premium Paras Defence's public issue opens on 21 September. Key details to know

       Premium RBI push to independently set reverse repo rate draws flak

       Subscribe to Mint Newsletters

       * Enter a valid email

       * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

       Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!