Two Lawsuits Filed over
Historic S.C. Newspaper
The Charleston (S.C.) Library Society and a Virginia rare-newspaper dealer are suing each other in an ownership dispute over a 1776 issue of a newspaper that sold for $140,000 at a May auction at Christie’s in New York.
The society, a private membership library, filed suit in Charleston County common pleas court against Christie’s, dealer Mark Mitchell who put the paper up for sale, and purchaser Charleston Post and Courier Foundation, claiming that it disappeared from its own collection years ago and that stain patterns match other issues it owns.
Mitchell brought suit in federal court in New York against the society, Christie’s, and the foundation’s bidding agent, asking to get both the newspaper and $131,600 in damages—the amount he claims he would have received from the auction. The parties are scheduled to meet with U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan on September 14, the Associated Press reported September 7.
The August 2–14, 1776, issue of the South Carolina and American General Gazette contains the only text of the Declaration of Independence printed in the state at the time. Since the auction, it has been locked in a vault at Christie’s awaiting resolution of the controversy.
Posted September 11, 2000.
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