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A handwritten and illustrated tale of wizardry by Harry Potter author JK Rowling fetched £1.95 million ($5.07 million) - nearly 40 times its expected price - at auction yesterday.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard had been expected to go for up to £50,000 at the sale by Sotheby's in London.
Web retailer Amazon.com was the buyer of the book, it was revealed today.
Only seven copies of the handwritten book were made - the other six have been given away as gifts.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is mentioned in the final Potter book as having been left to Harry's friend Hermione by their teacher, Albus Dumbledore.
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books," Rowling wrote in the sale catalog.
Of the five stories in the 157-page book, only one, The Tale of the Three Brothers, is told in the Potter novels. It appears in the final Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Amazon.com has posted several pictures of the book - which it handles with white gloves -- and a review of one tale called The Wizard and the Hopping Pot on the website amazon.com/beedlebard. The company plans to post reviews of all five tales.
"Even before establishing her charity," Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement, "J.K. Rowling had done the world a rare and immeasurably valuable service - enlarging forever our concept of the way books can touch people - and in particular children - in modern times."
- REUTERS
