Oriel College Sells Shakespeare
to Pay for Buildings and Books
Oxford University’s Oriel College library sold a First Folio edition of the plays of William Shakespeare for an estimated £3.5 million ($5.6 million) to Sir Paul Getty. The money will be used to pay for a £1.25 million ($2 million) renovation of a 17th-century hall and also for books and periodicals.
The First Folio was published in 1623. Only 228 of the more than 1,000 first editions still exist, most owned by public institutions. The Oriel First Folio has been in the college’s library for more than 200 years, originally a gift from Lord Leigh in 1786.
“I had had, for some years, the Second, Third, and Fourth Folios in their original bindings—the First, of course, was one of the towering books in English antiquarian bookhunting—and I was thrilled to get it,” Getty said in the February 4 London Telegraph. Getty added that the First Folio would be kept with the rest of Getty’s collection of books and manuscripts in the library of Wormsley Lodge, a 2,500-acre estate in Oxfordshire.
Some in the academic community are concerned about the sale. “Shakespeare First Folios are something special and selling them off sets a dangerous precedent. If colleges start selling off their family silver bit by bit in this way nobody will notice what is happening until it is too late,” said Anthony Nuttall, professor of English at New College in Oxford. Other academics are taking comfort that selling the volume to Getty, a well-known supporter of the arts, ensures it will stay in England and be well cared for.
Posted March 10, 2003.
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