The document that helped relaunch the modern Olympic Games in the 1890s has sold for $8.8 million, becoming the most valuable piece of sports-related memorabilia ever sold, according to Sotheby’s.
The auction for Pierre Cubertin’s 14-page “manifesto” played out at Sotheby’s in New York with three international bidders battling for over 12 minutes before the gavel dropped. The price was nearly nine times the manuscript’s pre-sale estimate of $1 million. It’s also a world record for any post-Renaissance manuscript.
The price established a new record for the category, surpassing the $5.6 million paid this summer for a jersey worn by Babe Ruth. The buyer’s identity is not yet known.
The document was written in 1892 by Coubertin, a French aristocrat, educator and athletics advocate who outlined his vision for reviving the ancient Olympic Games as a modern, international athletic competition. The 14-page manuscript is the only known copy of the manifesto in existence, and was written in French by Coubertin as a speech he delivered in 1892 for the fifth anniversary of the French Athletics Association held at the Sorbonne.
Two years after speaking at the Sorbonne, Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, with the ethos of his speech serving as the foundation of the committee’s mission. In 1896, the modern Olympic Games debuted in Athens.
Coubertin’s ideals for the Games “continue to underpin the Olympic spirit of excellence and sportsmanship that has made the Games the preeminent international sporting spectacle to this day,” Sotheby’s stated.
Coubertin’s speech outlined his vision for reviving the ancient Olympic Games. It was part of a wave of progressive social movements taking hold in Europe and the United States and Coubertin offered connections to the rise of athletics to other new ideas, technologies and systems that were propelling human progress and innovation, such as the telegraph, railways and developments in scientific research. He provided case studies on the state of athletics in countries such as Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, and elsewhere around the world to show that athletics were no longer primarily the domain of military training, but had evolved into a pursuit of individual excellence that had personal as well as societal benefits.
Coubertin gave his heart to the Olympic movement…literally.
“Driven by competition from around the world, today’s record result stands as a testament to Pierre de Coubertin’s vision of more than a century ago, and the reverence with which the Olympic games are still held, said Selby Kiffer, International Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts Department who served as auctioneer.
The manifesto’s whereabouts were uncertain for a time during the wars that plagued Europe in the first half of the 20th century but it was later discovered in the possession of a collector in Switzerland.