The first atlas ever printed became the most expensive ever sold at auction after it was bought on Tuesday in London for STG2.1 million ($A5.28 million) pounds ($3.91 million), auction house Sotheby's said.
The 1477 edition of Claudius Ptolemy's landmark atlas was bought by dealer Bernard Shapero on behalf of a private dealer.
The 2,136,000-pound price-tag dwarfed the previous record auction price of STG1.5 million ($A3.65 million) paid for the Doria Atlas sold at Sotheby's in October 2005, the auctioneer said.
Attracting bidders from around the world, the Ptolemy atlas was part of a sale of works from the library of the late Lord Wardington, Sotheby's said in a statement.
Ptolemy was an influential astronomer and geographer, who is thought to have lived during the first and second centuries.
Front page
RSS Feed