JOHN JAMES AUDUBON'S 'BIRDS OF AMERICA', A RARE BLEND OF ART, NATURAL HISTORY AND CRAFTSMANSHIP, FETCHED MORE THAN $10 MILLION AT AUCTION ON TUESDAY, MAKING IT THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE PUBLISHED BOOK. WITH ITS 435 HAND-COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF BIRDS DRAWN TO SIZE, THE VOLUME IS ONE OF TE BEST PRESERVED EDITIONS OF AUDUBON'S 19th CENTURY MASTERPIECE. THE SALE AT SOTHEBY'S LONDON HAD BEEN ANTICIPATED FOR MONTHS BY WEALTHY COLLECTORS. THE BOOK SOLD FOR $10,270,000 TO AN ANONYMOUS COLLECTOR BIDDING BY TELEPHONE, THE AUCTION HOUSE SAID. BECAUSE EACH PICTURE IS SO VALUABLE, THERE HAVE BEEN FEARS THE VOLUME WILL BE BROKEN UP AND SOLD AS SEPARATE WORKS OF ART. HOWEVER, EXPERTS BELIEVE THAT'S UNLIKELY. THE TOME IS PROBABLY MORE VALUABLE INTACT. AND COLLECTORS HOLD AUDUBON IN SUCH REVERENCE THAT THE NOTION OF RIPPING APART A PERFECT COPY WOULD BE AKIN TO SACRILEGE. PART NATURALIST AND PART ARTIST, AUDUBON POSSESSED AN UNEQUALED ABILITY TO OBSERVE, CATALOG AND PAINT THE BIRDS HE OBSERVED IN THE WILD. EXPERTS SAY HIS BOOK, ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1827, IS UNMATCHED IN ITS BEAUTY AND IS ALSO OF CONSIDERABLE SCIENTIFIC VALUE, JUSTIFYING ITS HISTORIC PRICE TAG. WHILE THE AUDUBON VOLUME HOLDS TE RECORD FOR A PUBLISHED BOOK, A 72 PAGE NOTEBOOK OF LEONARDO DA VINCI'S HANDWRITTEN NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS WENT FOR EVEN MORE. KNOWN AS THE LEICESTER CODEX, THE COLLECTION WAS BOUGHT BY BILL GATES IN 1994 FOR $31 MILLION. ALSO ON THE BLOCK TUESDAY WAS A SHAKESPEARE FIRST FOLIO FROM 1623 THAT FETCHED $2.05 MILLION. SOTHEBY'S BOOKS EXPERT DAVID GOLDTHORPE SAID THE AUDUBON AND SHAKESPEARE VOLUMES REPRESENT 'THE TWIN PEAKS OF BOOK COLLECTING.' BOTH CAME FROM THE ESTATE OF THE 2nd BARON HESKETH, A COLLECTOR WHO DIED IN 1955.
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