David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, bought a copy of the Magna Carta for $21 million. He also owns fragments of the Declaration of Independence and a Lincoln-signed Emancipation Proclamation, making him Washington D.C.'s most prominent historical collector.
David Rubenstein. Had you ever heard of him? From Carlyle Group? Yeah. He, like, worked for Jimmy Carter. David was like, I thought I had a pretty good IQ myself, but I was seeing a lot of people make a lot more money than I was who I thought maybe weren't as smart as me. And so I decided to try this PE firm, which at the time in the '80s was just killing it. But listen to this. He owns all this amazing stuff. He owns one of the last privately owned copies of the Magna Carta for $21 million. He bought it. He owns one of the last pieces, bits of the Declaration of Independence. He owns a Lincoln-signed Emancipation Proclamation. He's kind of like the white knight Washington, D.C.
