A Renaissance prayer book has sold for USD 13.6 million, just short of the auction record it set 15 years ago for an illuminated manuscript.
Christie's auction house says the Rothschild Prayerbook was purchased Wednesday by a private collector bidding by telephone.
The ornately illustrated Book of Hours sold in 1999 at Christie's London for USD 13.4 million to a European collector.
It was commissioned around 1505 by a member of the imperial court of the Netherlands. It entered the Rothschild family collection in the 19th century.
The 150-page book features full-page color drawings, called miniatures, by leading masters of illumination.
The manuscript was part of a collection of Nazi-confiscated treasures that was returned to the Rothschild banking dynasty by the Austrian government in 1999.
