Amazon revealed as the purchaser of Rowling Book for US$4 Million at Auction

The Tales of Beedle and the Bard, a limited edition, handwritten and illustrated book of fairy tales by J.K Rowling, fetched nearly $4 million at auction yesterday. Although early reports had named the winning bidder to be London art agent Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, the AP reported that the company was acting on behalf of Amazon.com Inc., which has since posted a thank you note, early review and photographs on its website.

The book "originally had been expected to sell for about $100,000," according to the AP. "The standing-room-only crowd at Sotheby's auction house applauded as bidding topped the $2 million mark."

Amazon now owns one of only seven copies of The Tales of Beedle and the Bard, which is leather bound with silver mounts. Rowling said the remaining six copies "had been given to people closely connected to the Harry Potter collection."
Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Children's Voice, a charity co-founded by Rowling and Baroness Nicholson that "campaigns for children's rights across Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, where many children and teenagers grow up in institutions, often in what many activists regard as unacceptable conditions."
Rowling, who watched the auction on the Internet from her home in Edinburgh, Scotland, said, "This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early to me."