Mason-Dixon Line map sells for $950,000 to anonymous bidder

A hand-drawn map of the Mason-Dixon Line has sold at auction in North Carolina for $950,000 to an anonymous buyer. The 1768 map is historically significant because the boundary it depicts later became associated with the division between free and slave states, although that was not its original purpose.

Forty-five bidders competed for the 76-inch-long, linen-backed document, which sold in under three minutes after bidding opened at $400,000. The auction house had hoped it would reach a high estimate of $1.2 million; the Library of Congress did not bid, citing budget limits. The map was first sold at auction in 1982, when Malcolm S Forbes outbid the library, and changed hands again in 2002 for $556,000.