News In Brief
| London
Medieval manuscript gets $10 million, an art record
A German medieval manuscript called ''a complete art gallery of 12th-century Romanesque art'' by one expert became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction when it was bought for $10.7 million.
The manuscript, auctioned at Sotheby's here, is the Gospel Book of Henry the Lion, sold by a mystery collector who kept it hidden for decades. It was bought by New York art dealer Hans Peter Kraus and London art company Bernard Quaritch.
A commission to the auctioneers brings the total to $11.72 million. The previous record was $6.4 million, for the Turner painting ''Juliet and her Nurse ,'' in 1980.
The 226-page book contains 41 full-page illustrations and more than 1,500 smaller illuminations in glowing gold and silver and brilliant blues, greens and purples, the work of a Benedictine monk called Herimann.
