Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin outbid a group of crypto investors for a copy of the US constitution

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The 53-year-old founder and CEO of Citadel caused a stir Thursday when he outbid a large group of cryptocurrency investors who had funded more than $ 40 million earlier in the week in an attempt frantic to win the document, the last first edition in private hands.

The group, organized as ConstitutionDAO, pooled the funds of more than 17,000 people over a 72-hour period, with the median donation hovering around $ 206. ConstitutionDAO said it is seeking to take the copy of the Constitution and make it available to the public.

“The US Constitution is a sacred document which enshrines the rights of every American and of all who aspire to be,” Griffin said in a statement released by Sotheby’s. “That is why I intend to make sure that this copy of our Constitution will be available for all Americans and visitors to see and enjoy.”

Mr. Griffin is an unpopular figure among the wave of individual investors whose influence grew during the pandemic through their use of social media to drive up “memes stocks” like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and GameStop Corp. Many investors suspect that its ecommerce company Citadel Securities, a subsidiary of the hedge fund, orchestrated the decision by Robinhood Markets Inc. and other brokerage firms to restrict trading on GameStop Corp. on Jan. 28, a move that halted a crazy rise in the video game retailer’s shares and caused losses for many small investors. Citadel Securities has denied playing a role in the decision. A judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that accused Robinhood and Citadel Securities of illegally colluding to impose the trade restrictions.

Mr Griffin said he intended to loan the 1787 folio to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., A free-entry museum founded ten years ago by Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The museum is known to have the portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale and other examples by Thomas Eakins and Marsden Hartley.

Crystal Bridges, however, does not have an archive of historical documents relating to the American Revolution; the closest mention in his collections is a 2012 Sandow Birk etching, “Monument to the Constitution of the United States”.

Mrs Walton’s niece, Olivia Walton, who was recently appointed chair of the museum’s board, said the museum was “honored to exhibit one of the most important documents in our country’s history since our location in the heart of America “.

The hedge fund manager is known for his crooked take on cryptocurrency. Last month, in a taped lecture at the Economic Club of Chicago, he told the public that he does not trade cryptocurrency due to its “regulatory uncertainty,” adding that he “wishes all of this crypto passion and energy is directed toward making the United States stronger. “

The main organizers of ConstitutionDAO declined to comment on Mr. Griffin’s victory. The DAO jokingly tweeted “how much for the citadel?” Shortly after Mr. Griffin was identified as the winner of the offer.

“It’s sad,” said Avi Flombaum, a 37-year-old man based in Brooklyn, NY, who is an executive at a tech talent development company. He donated cryptocurrency to ConstitutionDOA for the auction.

“Crypto is an amazing asset class,” added Mr. Flombaum. “There is no other asset or technology that would have allowed 17,000 people who have never met to self-organize like this.”

Mr. Griffin, who started his first trading business from his first-year Harvard University dorm, is well known in art circles. He sits on the boards of several museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He also has a wing named after him at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2006, he caused a sensation when Los Angeles music producer David Geffen confirmed that Mr. Griffin paid him $ 80 million for Jasper Johns’ 1959 “False Start”, the most expensive sale in the world. era for a work of a living artist. Last year, Mr. Griffin’s spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that he paid $ 100 million for a wall-sized artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1982, “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump ”, which Griffin then loaned to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Over the years he has also collected pieces by Paul Cézanne, Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Edgar Degas and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

With this Constitution purchase, Mr. Griffin suddenly reached the upper echelons of collectors of historical documents. Others include Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, who owns a $ 30.8 million copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific notebook known as Codex Leicester. In 2007, Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein paid $ 21.3 million for a copy of the 1297 Magna Carta.

The fate of the Constitution is important because this first six-page edition of the final text of the Constitution, which begins with “We the people”, was printed for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress ago. over 230 years. More than 27 first prints of the Declaration of Independence survive, but only 13 original copies of the Constitution still exist.

This story was posted from a feed with no text editing

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