At the March 2000 Christie’s auction, the former Qatari culture minister Sheikh Saud Al-Thani purchased a copy of ‘The Birds of America’ for $8.8 million, a record for any book at auctions. The Birds of America is a collection of illustrations of variety of birds of the United States. It was created by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, published in a series between 1827 and 1838 in London and Edinburgh. The paintings were carried out on engraved plates measuring 99 x 66 cm.
