Holdings, Sales, and Valuations
The First Folio's original price was 1 pound, the equivalent of about £95–£110 or US$190 to $220 in 2006. Like most books of that time the Folio was sold unbound and buyers would spend another pound or two to have it bound in leather, with various embellishments.
It is believed that around 750 copies of the First Folio were printed. The most recent census (1995–2000) records 228 still in existence. The British Library holds the following copies: 1st impression (1623) – 2 copies; 2nd impression (1632) – 5 copies; 3rd impression (1663) – 1 copy, total 8 copies. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. holds the world's largest collection with 82 copies. Another collection (12 copies) is held at Meisei University in Tokyo, Japan, including the Meisei Copy (coded MR 774), said to be unique because of annotations by its reader.
The First Folio is one of the most valuable printed books in the world: a copy sold at Christie's in New York in October 2001 made $6.16m hammer price (then £3.73m).
Oriel College, Oxford, raised a conjectured £3.5 million from the sale of its First Folio to Sir Paul Getty in 2003.
On 13 July 2006, a complete copy of the First Folio owned by Dr Williams's Library was auctioned at Sotheby's auction house. The book, which was in its original 17th century binding, sold for £2.5 million hammer price, less than Sotheby's top estimate of £3.5 million. This copy is one of only about 40 remaining complete copies (most of the existing copies are incomplete); only one other copy of the book remains in private ownership.
On 11 July 2008 it was reported that a copy stolen from Durham University, England, in 1998 had been recovered after being submitted for valuation at Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The folio's value was estimated at up to £15 million. Although the book, once the property of John Cosins the Bishop of Durham, was returned to the library, it has been mutilated and is missing its cover and title page. The folio was returned to public display on 19 June 2010 after its 12 year absence. Raymond Scott was jailed for eight years for handling stolen goods (he was acquitted of the theft of the copy). A July 2010 BBC programme about the affair, Stealing Shakespeare, portrayed Scott as a fantasist and petty thief.
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