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IN PHOTO: A man photographs the National Library of Australia in Canberra as it is illuminated by a large scale projection March 6, 2013. The night time projections, which are part of an event titles 'Enlighten Canberra' display the works of local artists on prominent buildings in Australia's capital city. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

It’s time to exhibit the world’s most expensive books in history in the southern hemisphere, which will go on display starting tomorrow at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The book will remain on display until August 9, 2015.

The Rothschild Prayer Book, which is being illuminated lavishly is valued at AU $15.5 million ($US13.6 million). The book dates back to 1505, when a member of the imperial court of the Netherlands commissioned it. Though the manuscript was assumed to have gone missing for 300 years, later entered the Rothschild family collection in the 19th century.

The book was reportedly stolen by the Nazi's and kept hidden at an Austrian salt mine for half a century before being handed over to the famous baking family by the Austrian government in 1999.

The 150-pages book includes small delicate illustrations, known as miniatures, illustrating saints, mythical creatures, landscapes and day-to-day objects. Australian businessman Kerry Stokes bought the celebrated masterpiece of Renaissance art last year at auction in New York.

"It's absolutely exquisite, it glows on the page," exhibition curator Susannah Helman said. "It was obviously commissioned by someone very wealthy. Someone with great taste. "It's incredibly beautiful. Some of the big names worked on it."

Written in Latin, the manuscript was created in Bruges and Ghent in northern Belgium, but according to Ms. Helman, it was still not clear who actually owned the manuscript.

"We don't know a lot about its early history and who commissioned it," she added. "But we know that it appears in a catalogue dating to 1872 as belonging to Baron Anselm Rothschild, who was the founder of the Austrian branch of that family of bankers."

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