World's Most Expensive…

RedRobin

My last take in this series was on the world's stranget things.


1. World's Most Expensive Book: The Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci


This is the most famous of Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific journals; the notebook is filled with his handwritten reflections and theories on everything from fossils to what makes the moon glow. The text was first purchased in 1717 by Thomas Coke (aka the Earl of Leicester); then, in 1980, bought by art collector Armand Hammer who owned it for 14 years. In 1994, Bill Gates swiped the journal at auction for USD$30.8 million, making it the most expensive book ever purchased.


World's Most Expensive…


2. World's Most Expensive Car: Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita


The CCXR Trevita was manufactured by Koenigsegg, and is the most expensive street-legal production car in the world at USD$4.8 million. Why is it worth so much? Well, this car is literally coated in diamonds… and diamonds clearly aren’t cheap. A new exterior finish was developed just for the Trevita, called the Koenigsegg Proprietary Diamond Weave; it involves coating carbon fibers with a diamond dust-impregnated resin. Most of us couldn’t comprehend how much the touch up paint costs. Underneath the gleaming finish lies a 4.8-liter, dual-supercharged V8 with a total output of 1,004 hp and 797 lb-ft. The car’s specifications are so extravagant that just three were ever made.


World's Most Expensive…


3. World's Most Expensive Animal: "Green Monkey"


The Green Monkey isn’t a monkey, it’s actually a horse. This race horse was first acquired by Demi O’Byrne at the Calder Race Course while it was 2 years old. With its offspring being Kentucky Derby champions, it only makes sense that the auction winner had high hopes for the horse. Awkwardly, this multi-million dollar horse has never won a race. It retired in February 2008 being worth USD$16 million.


World's Most Expensive…


4. World's Most Expensive House: Buckingham Palace


Technically this is still a house; the Queen’s residence was valued at just over USD$1.5 billion by the Nationwide Building Society in 2012. The property boasts 775 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 bedrooms, 188 staff rooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms. If you don't think this palace qualifies as a house, the runner up is 'Antilia', locates in Mumbi, India and is valued at around USD$1 billion.


World's Most Expensive…


5. World's Most Expensive Plant: The Kadupul Flower


Few living things are both as graceful and transient as the Kadupul flower; a fleeting beauty only located in Sri Lanka that blooms as rarely as once a year. And when it does bloom, it only does so in the dark of night and wastes away before sunrise... this flower is literally priceless.


World's Most Expensive…


6. World's Most Expensive Food: Italian White Alba Truffle


Truffles are expensive items, but none as dear as this. The white Alba truffle has become difficult to produce, explaining the excessive price. A huge white Alba truffle that came in at around 1.51 kilograms was once sold for USD$160,406 to a retail investor from Hong Kong.


World's Most Expensive…


7. World's Most Expensive Chair: The Dragons Chair


Created in 1971 by an Irish designer, Eileen Gray, the Dragons Chair was expected to reach between $2 million to $3 million however was eventually, was sold for a whopping USD$27.8 million to Yves Saint Laurent. The chair is furnished in brown leather and features a lacquered brownish frame made of wood. The dragon has a history in Chinese iconography as a symbol of strength, with the power to protect and to guard. The chair has not one, but two dragons with eyes in black varnish on a white ground and with bodies decorated in low relief with clouds.


World's Most Expensive…


8. World's Most Expensive Ring (and piece of jewlery): "The Graff Pink"


Believed to be the most expensive piece of jewellery in the world, “The Graff Pink” is a wopping 24.78 carat pink dimond, fashoned into a ring, and was sold for an astounding USD$46 million in 2010. It is characterised as a type II colour diamond and has a perfect rating which gives it a price of about USD$1.85 million per carat.


World's Most Expensive…

World's Most Expensive…
8 Opinion