Chinese Buyer Pays $200,000 for a Pigeon.
Most rich people around the world tend to gravitate to the same status symbols: mansions, yachts, art, private jets and wine. Despite the increasingly global nature of the rich, their spending seems to be becoming increasingly homogeneous.
Now comes news that the Chinese may be breaking the mold with a new form of trophy purchase: pigeons. A rich Chinese buyer paid $200,000 for a racing pigeon at a Belgium auction yesterday, setting a new world record. The bird’s name was Blue Prince, and he was one of the highly pedigreed Belgian racing pigeons that have long been considered the gold standard in the pigeon racing world. One 218 bird-colony fetched $1.8 million at the same auction.
Prices paid for these prized birds in the U.S aren’t nearly as high as China. The record paid for a bird in the U.S. is probably around $25,000, partly due to the fact that in this Country, pigeons are thought to be “the rats of the sky”. This breed of racing birds is similar to our breed of racing horses here in the U.S.
I once went to a Halloween Party as Tippi Hedron in Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. I had dead crows all over me on a green vintage suit from the 60’s. I would be scared of these pigeons attacking me! I was once hit by a pigeon in NYC. Pigeons are reckless. I think that they are slowly turning against us. Has anyone else been hit or attacked by a pigeon? We’ve all been shit on by them and I fail to see how this is good luck. How is it good luck when I have to spend $45 to have my garment drycleaned to get the gook removed?