The news says the buyer was Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, who are art dealers and also represent private buyers, so whoever won the book obviously wants to remain private.
1950000 is the price. The pre-publicity said that no buyers premium would be charged. 3,400,000 is what was raised in the whole auction (including a drawing by JKR and a few other Potter-related lots.
There is no buyer’s premium on the sale of this lot, so the price is actually just £1.95mil. I’ve blogged about my experience of the auction: http://aislingyngaio.blogspot.com/2007/12/tales-of-beedle-bard-auction.html
There is one lucky man/woman whoever was able to buy that book. And great news for the Children´s Voice charity.
Sotheby’s have a press release (pdf) at http://investor.shareholder.com/common/download/download.cfm?CompanyID=BID&FileID=151354&FileKey=4e317a93-b0ee-4e42-81fb-146953f0d006&filename=151354.pdf (or go to their front page and click on press releases).
I think this is such fantastic news for the Childrens Voice Charity! Sotheby’s did a great PR job and presentation of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It goes to show that J.K.Rowlings heart is in the right place.
Whoever is the lucky duck who acquired it, you are the envy of us all!
Has Jo ever said who were the six people that received copies of the Tales?
Wow this is really cool. Talk about a HUGE dontation for such an awesome charity. If you think about it, this is a pretty good investment to whomever bought it. Just think about all of the millions of people who enjoy the series who may one day become collectors themselves. The value of the book should only go up I would think.
Thats amazing. I wonder how tempted the other people with the book are. Though if jo was smart and she is they would have signed a contract probebly. That way its protecting the buyer.
So I wonder what the private buyer will do with “The Tales.” This leads me to ask my fellow commentors a question once phrased so eloquently by the Barenaked Ladies, “if you had a million dollars..” ok in this case a few million, and won the auction as a private bidder through Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, what would you do with “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”?
I think that I would display it for everyone to come and see, probably charge a minimal fee of some kind ($5 for example) and then donate all the proceeds to The Children’s Voice..why not keep the generosity of Potter fans everywhere going to those who need it most?
Wow…. that’s awesome!
Dawn…. I’d be very interested in where you got your figures about the the Quidditch/Fantastical Beasts books. I tried to find sales figures for those books, but couldnt. I would be very (pleasantly) surprised if they raised that much.
As a side note, part of the point of this book is that there are only 7 copies, and that they are hand written. The six books went to friends as a thank you for all their support over the Harry years. To mass-produce the book would have taken away from the gift she gave those friends. She didnt have to do this at all. She could have just written the 6 copies for those friends (or thought up a 7th friend, to keep that magical number, LOL), but instead, she made that extra copy for charity. I think it’s fantastic.
I am happy for her to get so much money for the charity found.
But I am sure that if she had made a nice little book for general sale for all of us, she would have made more benefit money and would have made happy millions of readers instead of a few ones who had the money to buy it.
I am very angry and frustrated, if Jo says all the time she loves her fans, mustn`t be so much after all
I wholly agree with you Confederate Lady :
) this is so terrific! Apart from being happy for “Children’s Voice” I am so thrilled for Jo – for having such a brilliant idea with the writing of “Beedle the Bard” and giving it up to auction! Cheers for Jo! Also thanks a lot Melissa – for your quick update – you knew we wanted to know as soon as possible ;)