7. “Birds of America” by James Audubon
Maker: John James Audubon
Original Price: $126*
Worth Today: $10.27 Million*
The Bird Of America is a collection of James Audubon prints of his hand-painted, watercolor birds. The large, four-volume book set contains 435 intricate paintings and there are only four copies of this volume known to exist. The book went to auction in 2018 and fetched over $10 million.
The book was purchased by Carl W. Knobloch, Jr and gifted to the foundation run by his family, the Knobloch Family Foundation (KFF), which is focused on conservation. All of the money from the book will be invested in environmental causes.
It’s not very often that items like this come up as they’re so rare and unique. It’s even less common to see them auctioned off for charitable purposes, so “Birds of America” gets double points for this one. It’s unlikely James Audubon could have envisioned such great things for his work.
