A copy of the Magna Carta that dates from 1297--and which, incidentally, paid a lengthy visit to Philadelphia 20 years ago--will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in December. Purchased by billionaire Ross Perot in 1984 for $1.5 million, it is the only copy of the Magna Carta in the United States--and the only one privately owned. Until a few weeks ago, it was on loan to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The New York Times reported that “[its] departure came so suddenly that the archives did not have time to remodel the [document’s] display case or fill it with some of the nine billion documents from the archives’ own collection.” Sotheby’s expects the document will sell for more than $20 million.

Again, from the New York Times: “‘This is surprising,’ said Lewis L. Neilson Jr., the chancellor of the National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons , a nonprofit group in Philadelphia..., ‘It provides a real rallying point for emphasizing the importance of individual liberty and the rule of law, and it will be curious to see what happens to it and who’s interested in purchasing it and what they do with it.’” Indeed.