Rowling book sold for $4 million
The only copy of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" available on the open market has sold for $4 million in London.
Only seven copies of "Beetle the Bard," hand-written and illustrated by Rowling herself, reportedly exist. Six were given away to family and friends, while the last was sold to raise money for The Children's Voice charity.
Sotheby's had predicted the selling price of the collection of fairy tales would be about $100,000, however, the London art agents Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox paid $4 million for the rare, beautifully bound and decorated volume, Times Online said Thursday.
"We have to reach back 80 years to find a comparison when we sold the manuscript of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' on behalf of the original Alice," said Philip Errington, Sotheby's book expert.
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is featured prominently in the last of Rowling's blockbuster "Harry Potter" novels.
Following the auction, Rowling told Times Online: "I am stunned and ecstatic.This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early for me." // Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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