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Rare Bird Book Insured for £7.5M Found in TV Show
1 Mar
Summary
- Liverpool Central Library's "Birds of America" is insured for £7.5 million.
- The valuable book features hand-coloured images of 435 North American birds.
- It was once stored 500 ft underground in a salt mine for safekeeping.
A library assistant at Liverpool Central Library was astonished to see a rare and valuable book featured in a BBC comedy. The book in question is "Birds of America," an insured treasure worth £7.5 million.
Published in the mid-19th century by ornithologist John James Audubon, this "double-elephant folio" contains 435 life-size, meticulously hand-coloured illustrations of North American birds. Its value is so significant that a single misplaced copy could rack up over 200,000 years of library fines.
Over the years, the library has taken extreme measures to protect this artifact. During the Liverpool Blitz, a librarian braved a bomb-damaged building to save it. More recently, during library redevelopment in the early 2010s, the book was kept in temperature-controlled storage 500 ft underground in a salt mine in Winsford, Cheshire.
The library continues to safeguard "Birds of America," a volume considered by some to be the most valuable in the world. Its scientific importance, including illustrations of extinct and mystery species, is considered to outweigh any potential financial gain from its sale. The book is on public display in the Oak Room of Liverpool Central Library.
