World’s most expensive printed book breaks auction record

LONDON - “Birds of America”, the world’s most expensive illustrated book, has been sold for a record price of 7.3 million pounds ($11.5 million) at an auction in London.

Sotheby’s auction house Tuesday said the price paid for the work of celebrated ornithologist and painter John James Audubon was a record for any printed book at auction.

It had been estimated to fetch between four and six million pounds.

Audubon, a Haitian-born Frenchman who settled in North America, lived from 1785 to 1851.

The book, from the collection of British aristocrat Lord Hesketh, was bought by Michael Tollemache, a London dealer, a spokesman for Sotheby’s said.