NEW YORK (AP) – A draft of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 document in which Britain expressed support for a Jewish state, sold for $884,000 at Sotheby’s on Thursday.

The draft was handwritten by Leon Simon, an English Zionist leader, at the July 17, 1917, meeting of the Zionist Political Committee at London’s Imperial Hotel. The ID of the buyer, a collector bidding on the phone, was not disclosed.

The document is the only known surviving handwritten draft of the declaration, Sotheby’s said. Written on hotel stationery, it reads: “H(is) M(ajesty’s) G(overnment) accepts the principle that P(alestine) should be reconstituted as the Nat(ional) Home of the J(ewish) P(eople). HMG will use its best efforts to secure the achievement of this object, and will discuss the necessary methods and means with the Z(ionist) O(rganization).”

The Balfour Declaration was issued Nov. 2, 1917, by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. The price paid on Thursday includes the auction house’s fee of 20 percent of the first $200,000 and 12 percent of the balance.

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