The single copy of J.K. Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard sold at Sotheby's today ... for £1,950,000! That's, um, well over the presale estimates of £30,000-50,000.
Proceeds will go to The Children's Voice charity.
More very soon.
BBC reports "After a bidding war between six auction participants, the book was bought by a representative from London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox." Rowling: "I am stunned and ecstatic. This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early to me."
The other six copies of ToBtB were given to people "closely connected" with the Harry Potter series.
[More, from Sotheby's: "The price achieved today stands as the highest price ever achieved at auction for a modern literary manuscript, an auction record for a work by JK Rowling, and an auction record for a children’s book."]
[Later: We now know the buyer!]
