Latest news with #MagnaCarter
ITV News
15-05-2025
- General
- ITV News
Magna Carta bought for less than $30 believed to be original copy and worth millions
An original issue of the Magna Carta, which auctioneers mistakenly catalogued as a copy in the 1940s and sold for a 'fairly derisory price', has been identified. Researchers have concluded that the document is far more valuable than first thought and is in fact a rare version from 1300 issued by King Edward I. Harvard Law School Library in America bought the document from a London book dealers Sweet & Maxwell in 1946 for $27.50 before knowing its true worth. The copy is now estimated to be worth millions of dollars. By comparison, a Magna Carta dated from 1297, that was sold at auction in 2007, fetched more than $21 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York. The original Magna Carter, established in 1215, recognising the rights of common people and the principal that the King is subject to law, has formed the basis of many global constitutions. David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King's College London was searching the Harvard Law School Library website in December 2023 when he found the digitised document. He said: 'My reaction was one of amazement and, in a way, awe that I should have managed to find a previously unknown Magna Carta. 'First, I'd found one of the most rare documents and most significant documents in world constitutional history. 'But secondly, of course, it was astonishment that Harvard had been sitting on it for all these years without realising what it was.' Carpenter teamed up with Nicholas Vincent, a professor of medieval history at Britain's University of East Anglia, to confirm the authenticity of Harvard's document. Comparing it to the other six copies from 1300, it was confirmed to be an original becoming one of only 25 known surviving Magna Carta, according to Prof Vincent. 'The comparison I would draw is the rarest painter known to everybody is Vermeer,' he said. 'There are I think, it's disputed, there are over 30 Vermeer paintings in existence and yet he is seen as the rarest painter in history. 'There are only now 25 of these Magna Carta originals. 'It is an extraordinary thing for anyone to possess.' Amanda Watson, of Harvard Law School, congratulated the two professors on the 'fantastic discovery' and said: 'This work exemplifies what happens when magnificent collections, like Harvard Law Library's, are opened to brilliant scholars.'
Telegraph
14-02-2025
- General
- Telegraph
British Library worker refused quiet place to work wins payout for injured feelings
A British Library worker has won more than £7,000 – for not being given a quiet place to work in. An employment tribunal ruled that the London institution had discriminated against Lidia Kogut by failing to give her a quiet location or moving her to a 'suitable alternative role'. Richard Nicolle, an employment judge, said the failure 'to make a reasonable adjustment to provide her with a quiet location within its premises succeeds in accordance with [...] the Equality Act or alternatively that it failed to move her to a quiet office temporarily until a permanent suitable alternative role was identified'. Ms Kogut, 45, had all her other claims dismissed. She was awarded £7,554.58 in compensation, £1,350.20 for a reduction in salary she had suffered and £6,204.38 for injury to feelings. Collects everything ever published The British Library houses more than 170 million items including the Magna Carter, the library of George III and Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. The research building, in Bloomsbury, collects everything ever published in the UK including books, newspapers and even audio recordings. It houses permanent free displays of its artefacts plus special exhibitions to show off the collection including current ones about Medieval women and the Silk Road trading route. In March 2024, two elderly Just Stop Oil protesters targeted one of the few surviving copies of Magna Carta kept at the building. The Rev Dr Sue Parfitt, an 82-year-old Anglican priest from Bristol, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher from Swansea, south Wales, smashed the glass guarding the document and demanded an emergency plan to stop oil production by 2030. The pair were charged with criminal damage in May 2024.
