Mason-Dixon Map Sells for $950,000 at Brunk Auctions

A hand-drawn survey that established the Mason-Dixon Line sold Thursday for $950,000 at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina. Forty-five bidders competed for just under three minutes, and the auction opened at $400,000. The high estimate had been $1.2 million.

The work was finished in 1768 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. Maryland and Pennsylvania commissioned it to resolve a border dispute between the two colonies. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 later used the line to set limits on slavery in the United States, and the line became associated with the divisions that led to the Civil War four decades later.

The map changed hands twice in the decades before Thursday's sale. Publisher Malcolm Forbes bought it in 1982 for $360,000, outbidding the Library of Congress. It sold again in 2002 for $556,000. The Library of Congress did not bid Thursday, according to auction house Vice President Lauren Brunk.

Brunk said the buyer asked to remain anonymous. "It's a very high price for a map," she said. She also said, "I would like to say I'm thrilled that this is going to a good home and we are so happy to have had it in our presence for these last months."

A vertical section of the map showing the Delaware-Maryland border is held at Princeton University.