The most expensive pie cost customers to the Fence Gate Inn, Lancashire, UK £8,195 (then $14,260) or £1,024 (then $1,781) per slice when ordered by eight guests on 14 November 2005. The pie’s ingredients includes £500 ($870) worth of Japanese wagyu beef fillet (from cattle who treated so well they are even massaged!), Chinese matsutake mushrooms (£500 per 1kg; $870 per 2 lb 3 oz) – so precious, they are harvested under guard, Winter Black truffles, French Bluefoot mushrooms at £200 per 1 kg ($348
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The most expensive contemporary artwork, in terms of the value of its raw materials, is For the Love of God, created from £12 million ($23.7 million) worth of materials in 2007 by Damien Hirst (UK), in collaboration with the British jewellery company, Bentley & Skinner. The human skull (that of a European male living between 1720 and 1810) was cast in 2,156 g (76 oz) of platinum, and set with 8,601 ethically-sourced flawless diamonds (weighing a total of 1,106.18 carats), including a 52.4-carat, pear-shaped pink
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On 3 December 2010, the earliest known map of the United States to be printed in America sold at auction at Christie’s, New York, USA, for $1.8 million (£1.1 million), via a phone bid. Taking commissions into account, the full price totalled $2,098,500 (£1,345,138). Created in 1784, the map came from the collection of the New Jersey Historical Society and is one of only seven such prints known to exist. It is also the first map printed in America to show the flag of the
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The most expensive man-made object is the International Space Station its final cost will be over $100 billion (£66.7 billion).
The most valuable mangoes in the world cost AUS$2,562.50 (£889; $1,285) each and were purchased by Sam Coco (Australia) when he bought a tray of 16 Top End mangoes at the Brisbane Produce Markets Charity Auction, Australia for AUS$41,000 (£14,230; $20,565) on 12 October 2001. The tray of mangoes, the very first of the season, was handed over by Sam to children in the Mater Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane. Each tray normally sells for AUS$15-25 (£5-9).
Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA starring Siegfried Fishbacher and Roy Horn (both Germany) cost over $28 million (then £16 million) to stage when it opened on 1 February 1990. The show, which featured dozens of wild animals (including an elephant), a giant mechanical dragon which breathed fire and a cast of 60, closed after its 5,750th performance on 3 October 2003 after co- star, Roy Horn, was seriously injured by a white tiger called Montacore. Produced by Kenneth Feld &
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In June 2009, Nomenus Quarterly, a limited-edition folio of original or previously unpublished images, reduced its print run to 10 copies from 50 and raised the price for a copy from $2,500 (then £1,500) to $6,500 (then £4,000). Nomenus Quarterly began publication 2007 under Erik Madigan Heck, its founder and editor in chief. All works are specifically created for each edition or previously unpublished. Nomenus Quarterly appears online four times per year, and additionally in print as a series of limited-edition folios and books.
The record for the most expensive mobile phone was designed by GoldVish of Geneva, Switzerland, and was sold for 1,000,000 Euros ($1,287,200 – £675,123) at the Millionaire Fair in Cannes, France, on 02 September 2006. Mobile specifications attached to the claim under Specs.
The world’s most expensive military aircraft is the US-made B-2 Spirit, which cost in excess of $1.3 billion (£780 million) per unit. A long-range multi-role bomber, it is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions, and has a number of stealth characteristics that enable it to penetrate an enemys defences without being observed: these include its special coatings and flying-wing design. The B-2 has an unfuelled range of 9,600 km (5,965 miles), and can carry a payload of 18.144 tonnes. It made its first
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The most expensive music single sold at auction is a rare seven-inch copy of unreleased 1965 single Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) by Frank Wilson (USA). It sold for £25,742 ($39,294) to a buyer who wished to remain anonymous. Seller Kenny Burrell, a DJ and record collector stated that he was selling his copy in order to gain credibility as a record expert.