“On June 11, the palimpsest, which is overwritten with Georgian text written by John Zosimos, was presented at the Christie's auction in London and its estimate price is GBP 1,000,000 - 1,500,000,” - the founder and head of Baia Gallery, Baia Tsikoridze, writes.

The Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, in Christian-Palestinian Aramaic and Georgian, contains the earliest textual witnesses of the Gospels in the nearest dialect of Aramaic to that spoken by Jesus, composed within a living tradition based in the Holy Land. The palimpsest is overwritten with Georgian text written in  979 by the famed calligrapher, author, translator and bookbinder-monk John Zosimos, and survives here in his 10th-century binding from St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, the earliest known signed, dated and localisable binding.

"In the summer of 1955 in Florence, a 15-year-old Martin Schoen bought his first antique book - a fragment of the manuscript of French sermons. The acquisition of this manuscript began the history of one of the most extensive collections of manuscripts ever assembled. In the late 1980s, Martin Schoen and his collection became known to auction houses, scholars and dealers. Amassing a collection of this scale and quality in the second half of the 20th century would have been impossible, but Martin Schoen succeeded. This magnificent collection includes 1,300 cultural history monuments and world heritage manuscripts such as the Crosby–Schøyen Codex, the Holkham Hebrew Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus and the Geraardsbergen Bible, as well as Greek literature, humanistic masterpieces, early English law, the Scots Chronicle and more," - art expert/gallerist Baia Tsikoridze said.