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

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Most Expensive Musical Instrument

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Scott Houston / Sygma / Corbis

Item: Guarneri del Gesù violin
Winning Bid: $3.9 million
Sold: 2007

Even if you don't play the violin, you've probably heard of Antonio Stradivari, the famous Italian craftsman of stringed instruments (or luthier, as such a person is known). But it was Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarnieri, the grandson of one of Stradivari's apprentices, whose instrument broke the world record for the highest-priced auction item. The 250-year-old violin — one of only 250 Guarnieri instruments that survive — was purchased by a Russian lawyer. It was subsequently played for the first time in 70 years by Israeli maestro Pinchas Zukerman during a private concert in Moscow.

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