Book value

By The Economist online

The most expensive books

ON TUESDAY December 7th a complete volume of John James Audubon's "The Birds of America" fetched a record price at auction. The book, which stands more than three feet by two feet (91cm x 61cm) and includes 435 hand-coloured illustrations of birds from North America in life-size, reached $10.3m. The previous record for a book was another copy of Audubon's masterpiece, sold in 2000, which reached $10.2m in today's prices. Indeed, a list of the ten most-expensive books would include five copies of "The Birds of America". Our chart, therefore, strips out any repeat mentions of individual titles. Many of the most expensive books are works of non-fiction, such as Redouté's illustrations of flowers, Gutenberg's Bible and the Declaration of Independence.