Macau billionaire Stanley Ho paid a record $330,000 for a white truffle at a charity auction, beating competing bids from the U.K. artist Damien Hirst and Sheik Mansoor Bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the organizers said.
The 1.5 kilogram (3.3 pounds) tuber magnatum pico was found on Nov. 23 near Pisa by Cristiano and Luciano Savini, who donated it to the International Tuscan Truffle Auction. The event, in its fifth year, was held simultaneously yesterday in London, Florence and Macau. The previous record for a truffle was $212,000.
“It was very, very exciting,” said Giorgio Locatelli, the Italian chef who hosted the London end of the auction. “I was bidding on behalf of Damien, who was on the phone. He’d planned to come, but you never know with him. On my birthday, I offered him a table at my restaurant but he showed up at my house instead.”
The auction raised a total of $453,000, with the proceeds going to different charities in each country: The Consortium for Street Children in the U.K.; the Telethon in Italy and Caritas in China. The association aims to promote and protect the Tuscan truffle and to support the hunters who unearth them with dogs.
“Please tell everyone, I am very happy,” organizer Giselle Oberti of the association said in a telephone interview from Florence, where she said she bid on behalf of the sheik at Palazzo Medici Ricciardi. In Macau, the event was conducted at the Italian restaurant in Ho’s Grand Lisboa hotel. Ho owns the casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau SA, which is planning a share sale.
