In 1930 and 1932, the Soviet government brought valuable items to the international antique market, which it had acquired through nationalization. London antiquarians arrived in Moscow to offer their services and establish contacts at the government level.

From Moscow, they traveled to Leningrad, where they acquired the Gutenberg Bible and, with this book under their arm, visited the Public Library. Upon returning to Moscow, they met with Arkady Rosenholtz, the deputy people's commissar for foreign trade, and jokingly remarked that if the commissioner needed money, he could simply send this manuscript. A few months later, the cultural attaché of the Soviet embassy in Paris visited the Paris branch of Maggs Bros. Ltd and conveyed that Comrade Rosenholtz indeed needed money.

Negotiations began, and the parties agreed on a price of 100,000. The final decision to sell the Sinai Codex was made by Stalin, whose signature is on a note from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the VKP(b): "From December 5, 1933. The question of Comrade Rosenholtz. To obligate Comrade Bubnov to issue the manuscript of the Bible 'Sinai Codex' to Narcomvneshtorg and to allow NKVT to sell it. Excerpts sent to: Comrades Rosenholtz, Bubnov. Secretary of the Central Committee I. Stalin."

In December 1933, the Sinai Codex was transported from the Leningrad Public Library to the British Library, where it remains to this day.

This ancient and most complete Greek manuscript of the Old and New Testaments was discovered in 1844 in the library of the male monastery of St. Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai by Constantin von Tischendorf. Thanks to the efforts of the German theologian, who received support at court, this invaluable cultural monument ended up in the capital of the empire in 1859.