World's most expensive book sells for

[Viggen]

John James Audubon's Birds of America broke the world record for a single book when it was sold at Sotheby's for 11.5 million U$. The Audubon work sold in the middle of a larger sale of rare books and prints from the estate of a deceased British lord. The sale price of "Birds of America" exceeded pre-auction estimates of $6 million to $9 million. Audubon, who came to the U.S. from France as a young man, created the 435 life-size bird watercolors that would become "Birds of America" between 1827 and 1838. The books are more than four feet wide when opened...

 

via Wall Street Journal

[Melvadius]

The BBC report of the sale although shorter provides a couple of additional snippets of information.

 

Only 119 complete copies of the 19th-century book are known to exist, and 108 are owned by museums and libraries.

 

 

In same sale another famously rare 'book' was sold:

 

Lord Hesketh's collection also included a rare copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, which Sotheby's said was "the most important book in all of English Literature".

 

Of the 750 that were probably printed, only 219 are known to exist today.

 

The copy, which dates back to 1623 and has three pages missing, sold for