By Sohaib Shams
A hand-drawn map depicting the Mason-Dixon Line sold Thursday for $950,000 at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina.
Auction details
Forty-five bidders competed in a bidding war lasting just under three minutes, with bidding starting at $400,000. The final price fell short of the $1.2 million high estimate. Auction house Vice President Lauren Brunk called it a very high price for a map and said the buyer requested anonymity.
Historical significance
The survey, completed in 1768 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, was originally commissioned to settle a border dispute between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It later became instrumental in the 1820 Missouri Compromise, establishing the boundary between free and slave states, and grew synonymous with the divisions that led to the Civil War.
Publisher Malcolm Forbes purchased the map in 1982 for $360,000, and it was resold in 2002 for $556,000. The Library of Congress, which had previously sought the map, was not among Thursday's bidders. A vertical section showing the Delaware-Maryland border is housed at Princeton University.
