The world’s most expensive feather is a glossy black, white-tipped tail feather in excellent condition that originated from a now-extinct species of New Zealand wattlebird known as the huia (Heteralocha acutirostris). On 20 May 2024, it sold at Webb’s Auction House for NZ$46,522 (£22,409; US$28,417), including buyer’s premium. It had initially been expected to fetch c. NZ$3,000 but went on to break the previous record (also a huia feather, sold at Webb’s in 2010) by some 450%.
Restricted to New Zealand’s North Island, the huia was last definitively observed in 1907, though a few unconfirmed sightings were reported for at least two decades beyond that (and possibly even as recently as the early 1960s). This species was sacred to the Māori people, whose chiefs and their families often wore its tail feathers in their head-dresses. Its extinction is poorly understood, but habitat destruction and over-hunting, coupled with predation by introduced rats and infection by those non-native mammals’ parasites, all likely played a part.
A feature that distinguished the huia was the unparalleled degree of sexual dimorphism exhibited in the beak between males and females. Whereas that of the male was short, stout, straight and sharply pointed at its tip, that of the female was long, slender, and downward-curved, the two shapes having evolved to fulfil two very different functions. The male’s was used to chisel out grubs (especially those of Prionoplus reticularis, a longhorn beetle commonly called the huhu) from decaying wood like a woodpecker does, and the female’s was used to secure grubs from deep woody crevices that her mate’s shorter beak could not reach. Until recently, it was thought that the possession of a sexually dimorphic beak was unique to the huia, but it is now known that a second, unrelated species of vanished bird, the Réunion crested starling (Fregilupus varius), extinct since 1837, also sported such a beak, but not to so pronounced a degree as in the huia.
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History of Auctioneering
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The most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs. (Rupees) 43,131,311 (£448,944; $693,174) and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibai Patel (India), in Surat, Gujarat, India, on 20 February 2015.
- The suit was worn by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.
- The proceeds from this auction went to the Namami Gange Fund, a project to clean the Ganges river.
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Sold for £640 (US$939.84), the world’s most expensive Post-It® Note features a pastel and charcoal work called After Rembrandt by artist RB Kitaj. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Post-it® Note, celebrity artists were asked to create miniature masterpieces on Post-it® Notes that were then auctioned online 13-20 December 2000 raising over £5,000 ($7,300) for charity.
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Sold for £640 (US$939.84), the world’s most expensive Post-It® Note features a pastel and charcoal work called After Rembrandt by artist RB Kitaj. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Post-it® Note, celebrity artists were asked to create miniature masterpieces on Post-it® Notes that were then auctioned online 13-20 December 2000 raising over £5,000 ($7,300) for charity.
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The most valuable chocolate bar in the world is a 100-year old Cadbury’s chocolate bar which went on Captain Robert Scott’s first Discovery expedition (1901-1904) to the Antarctic. The bar, which is 10 cm (4 in) long, wrapped and uneaten in a cigarette tin, was bought for £470 ($687) by an anonymous buyer at Christie’s, London, UK on 25 September 2001.
The bar was made at Cadbury’s Bournville factory in Birmingham and was part of 1,587 kg (3,500 lb) of cocoa and chocolate Scott took on the trip.
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The most expensive videogame sold at an online auction is a sealed copy of Super Mario 64, which sold for $1,560,000 (£1,121,490 / €1,313,080) at an online auction hosted by Heritage Auctions (USA), on 11 July 2021.
The fee broke a record set just days earlier when a sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda sold for $870,000 (£627,744 / €733,910) in an online auction also hosted by Heritage Auctions.
The 1996 Nintendo 64 cartridge was given a 9.8 A++ rating by video game collectable firm Wata.
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The most expensive bottle of water sold at auction was for $774,000 pesos, $60,000 US (£39,357) at an auction organised by Plan3t Foundation A.C. at La Hacienda de los Morales, Mexico City, Mexico on, 4 March 2010. The glass bottle is covered in 24-karat gold and is based on artwork by the late Italian artist Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. The funds raised from the auction were donated to the foundation to battle global warming.
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The most expensive tuna fish sold at an auction is a bluefin tuna sold at a price of 333,600,000 Yen ($3,082,610; £2,431,410) to Sushizanmai of Kiyomura Corporation (Japan) at the annual first fish auction of the year at Toyosu Market in Koto, Tokyo, Japan, on 5 January 2019. It was caught in Oma, Aomori, Japan, and it weighed 278 kg (612 lb 14.24 oz).
It was the first “first market auction of the year” celebration at Toyosu Market. CEO of Kiyomura served the tuna after the action. Though the tuna was the most expensive tuna fish, the price for one piece of sushi was set to the regular price.
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The record total for any camera auction is £;296,043 ($535,690) for a collection of `spy’, subminiature and detective cameras sold at Christie’s, London, UK on 9 December 1991.
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The most money anyone has paid for a fortune cookie is £10,000 ($17,473) at an auction at the Chinese New Year Gala Dinner in aid of Kids at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, United Kingdom, on 8 February 2006.
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