A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence made for James Madison that survived the Civil War hidden behind wallpaper in Virginia was purchased last month by billionaire philanthropist David M. Rubenstein for "seven figures."
The copy, made in the 1820s for Madison, fourth president of the United States, is one of 51 copies known to be in existence by scholars, The Washington Post reported.
"This is the closest … to the original Declaration, the way it looked when it was signed in August of 1776," Seth Kaller, a New York rare-document appraiser who assisted in the sale, told the Post. "Without these … copies you wouldn't even know what the original looked liked."
Copies of the Declaration of Independence have been found in other unusual places.
Tom Lingenfelter, a rare historical documents dealer Doylestown, Pennsylvania, found the truest copy of the 1776 handwritten document at a flea market in 1992, according to ConstitutionalFacts.com.
The James Madison copy was hidden behind the wallpaper of the Virginia residence to keep Union soldiers from finding it and then kept in a cardboard box with a broken frame in a Kentucky home closet, the Post said.
It later made its way to Houston where it was placed behind the cabinet in the office energy executive Michael O'Mara, where it had been for 10 years. Before that, the document was in his parents' home in Louisville where he grew up.
O'Mara told the Post that it was once considered "worthless" in 1960 after it was passed down through his family.
"So for … 35 years, it sat in a box, wrapped up, in a broken frame, in my mother's house," O'Mara said. "There was just not a lot of sentiment or value put on it. … My mother couldn't have cared less about the family history."
The document was given to O'Mara's mother, Helen, who was the great-granddaughter of Col. Robert Lewis Madison Jr., a Civil War doctor who had served in the Confederate army and treated Robert E. Lee.
Research indicates that the physician received the document from his father, Robert Lewis Madison Sr., James Madison's favorite nephew, who had lived for a time in the White House when his uncle was president.
Robert Lewis Madison Sr. likely received the copy from President Madison then.
O'Mara told the Post when his mother died in 2014 he reached out to Rubenstein who he learned had purchased other historical documents. That's when the document was authenticated and went into conservatorship.
"I agreed to buy it," Rubenstein told the Post, saying he paid "seven figures" for it.
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