He stressed that he had bought the Declaration as more than just an investment. "I think this is a living document and the words are every bit as live today," he said.

The price was well over the record $1,595,000 paid for a copy of the Declaration at Sotheby's in January 1990.

The copy sold yesterday is a crisp, clean broadside, creased along lines where it had been folded. It was printed by John Dunlap on July 4, 1776, to carry news of America's independence to the citizens of the 13 colonies. It is one of 24 known copies of the Declaration, and one of only three remaining in private hands.

The previous owner, who was not identified, had told Sotheby's he bought a torn painting for $4 in a flea market in Adamstown, Pa., because he was interested in its frame. When he got home, he said, he removed the painting -- a dismal country scene -- and concluded the frame could not be salvaged, but found the Declaration, folded and hidden in the backing. He showed it to Sotheby's experts earlier this year.

Mr. Redden said he thought the man would be "rather stunned" to learn the price it had brought.

The Declaration was the last and most dramatic sale of a three-hour morning session that included an early printing of Columbus's letter to Ferdinand and Isabella reporting his discovery of America, letters by Dwight D. Eisenhower to Kay Summersby, with whom he is said to have been linked romantically, and the original autograph manuscripts of all the major works by the South African writer Alan Paton.