Top 10 Most Expensive Auction Items

Auction house Sotheby's announced Sept. 9 that it will sell a rare John James Audubon tome, Birds of America, and expect it to fetch between $6.2 million and $9.2 million — making it the world's most expensive book. Only 119 copies of the bird book — most of which exist in museums and libraries — remain. Here's a look at some other pricey auction items

Going Once, Going Twice ...

Most Expensive Furniture

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Item: Badminton Cabinet

 Winning Bid: $36 million

 Sold: 2004

An item like this really ties the room together — with money. When the 18th century Florentine ebony chest inlaid with amethyst quartz, agate, lapis lazuli and other stones sold for $36 million at a 2004 Christie's auction, it broke its own record as the most expensive piece of furniture sold at auction. The Badminton Cabinet, so named because it remained in Badminton, England, for over two centuries, had set the previous record in 1990 when Christie's sold it to billionaire Barbara Piasecka Johnson (of the Johnson & Johnson fortune) for $16.59 million. Johnson put it up for sale in 2004, when it was bought by Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, who donated it to the Liechtenstein Museum in Austria.

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