Who bought the Declaration of Independence at an auction in 2000?

In 1989, a man got more than he bargained for at a flea market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania when he bought a framed painting for $4. He found a document folded up behind the painting, which experts later identified as a rare first printing of the Declaration of Independence. The document is one of about 200 copies the printer John Dunlap made after the declaration’s ratification on July 4, 1776. The ink was still wet on this copy when it was printed, an auction expert told The New York Times, evidenced by the first line of the Declaration’s text appearing in reverse at the bottom of the page.

In 2000, TV producer Norman Lear bought the copy discovered at the flea market for a record $8.14 million through Sotheby’s, a global auction house.
Norman Lear bought the copy of the Declaration of Independence at an auction in 2000.