Book of Mormon sells for $180,000

Some person or organization in Salt Lake City purchased a rare LDS hymnal at auction on Thursday for $180,000 — several times the expected price, and the same price was paid by another buyer in the northeastern United States for a first edition Book of Mormon at a rare documents auction in New York City.

The purchase price for both items is believed to be among the highest ever paid for historic documents associated with the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Rebecca Weiss, a media relations representative for Swann Galleries, said the actual high bid for each item was $150,000, but the gallery adds a 20 percent buyer's premium that brought the cost to $180,000 each. The hymnal had been expected to bring from $30,000 to $40,000 and the Book of Mormon from $70,000 to $90,000.

"You never know what will happen at auctions," Weiss said. "We had multiple interested parties competing for the same lots. When that happens, who knows what things will sell for." The books were sold to buyers bidding by phone during the spirited auction, she said, adding the auction house doesn't identify bidders or buyers.

The first edition Book of Mormon, in its original binding, was signed by early LDS apostle Orson Pratt, and an inscription by its owner, Denison Root, indicates "the book was a gift from Hyrum Smith," brother of church founder Joseph Smith.

What the early catalog listing for the book didn't say was that Root was married to Phoebe Hale, sister to Emma Hale, who was the wife of Joseph Smith. "That makes the association of the book even more fascinating, though I don't think that information got out to the general public," Weiss said.

Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon to be scripture on par with the Bible. Smith said he translated the book from gold plates delivered to him by an angel, and first edition copies of the book — printed in 1830 — have skyrocketed in price during the past decade. Of the 5,000 original copies, a few hundred are known to remain in circulation.

Increasingly hefty price tags at public sales of the first edition copies in the past decade illustrate the booming interest in rare Mormon documents, according to Missouri-based collector John Hajicek, who declined comment on the prices paid by the buyers at Thursday's auction or whether he had participated in the bidding.

Hajicek said his collection of documents is worth "$10 million fair-market value" and he believes it is the largest such collection in the world. He has said in the past that he owns multiple copies of the first edition Book of Mormon.