10. “Birds of America” by James Audubon
Manufacturer: John James Audubon
Original Price: $ 126 *
Worth Today: $ 10.27 million *
James Audubon's collection of aquatint paintings, called The Bird of America, is made up of 435 detailed paintings, distributed across four volumes. Only four examples of this set are known. In 2018, one of them was auctioned and fetched a value of more than 10 million dollars.
The book was purchased by Carl W. Knobloch, Jr and donated to the foundation run by his family, the Knobloch Family Foundation (KFF), which focuses on conservation. All money from the book will be invested in environmental causes.
Rarely do items like this come along as they are so rare and unique. It's even more unusual to see them being auctioned off for charity, so “Birds of America” deserves two points for that. It is unlikely that James Audubon could have imagined such great things for his work.
