Publisher Mixes Cricket Star's Blood With Paper Pulp For Limited Edition Book
Source: Wall Street Journal
By ALEXANDRA ALTER
For $75,000, you can buy a piece of Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar.
Luxury publisher Kraken Opus mixed in a pint of Mr. Tendulkar's blood with paper pulp to create the signature page for a book celebrating the renowned batsman's career. The 10 limited-edition copies, which comes out in February, cost $75,000 each and have already sold out.
Kraken is one of a handful of high-end publishing houses that are pushing the boundaries of extravagance and novelty in the luxury book market. Such books are being treated as investments and sometimes commanding prices usually reserved for original art works.
From 'Tendulkar Opus,' $75,000
Earlier this year, Taschen Books sold pieces of the moon with 12 copies of its massive photography book on the lunar landing (one of the lunar-rock editions sold for $112,500). Taschen previously published a $7,500, 800-page book on Muhammad Ali, "GOAT" (for "greatest of all time"), that comes with four signed photographs of the boxer and a sculpture by Jeff Koons.
"No one says, 'I want to download the e-edition of this book,' " says book analyst Michael Norris of research firm Simba Information. "If it's a physical object that's beautifully done, people see the value."
Kraken plans to charge $40,000 for a forthcoming book about the Ferrari automobile—a sum that could purchase an actual car, albeit a more prosaic one. The book features rare images of Enzo Ferrari's villa and action inside Formula One racing pits, plus the signatures of all living Ferrari champion drivers. A hedge-fund manager has ordered 20 copies (just 399 will be issued) and is paying Kraken a quarterly fee to store the books in a climate-controlled facility, says Karl Fowler, CEO of parent company Opus Media Group.
The 'Enzo Edition' of 'The Ferrari Opus' for $40,000.
This summer, Taschen is releasing a $50,000 collector's edition celebrating the work of the installation artists Christo and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude. The 754-page tome, designed by Christo, comes with a 1965 lithograph, and an original sketch depicting one of his installations.
Taschen recently published a $2,000 book of surreal erotic photographs by French photographer Bettina Rheims, which comes with a signed original print and a DVD of a film based on the photos featuring supermodel Naomi Campbell and Italian actress Monica Bellucci. TeNeues Publishing Group is coming out with several $3,000 collector's editions with original signed prints this fall, including titles on fashion designer John Galliano's work at Dior and Michael Poliza's Africa photos.
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