People spend crazy amounts of money on all kinds of things, such as works of ‘art’, cars and obviously pigeons. Wait, pigeons? Yeah it seems that pigeons, those annoying birds that poop everywhere in cities and swarm around feeding on discarded food waste, can even fetch a high price tag. Apparently this particular pigeon in question is not your ordinary run of the mill bird though, but more like a Picasso work of art!

It has been reported that a rich Chinese businessman has paid almost $400,000 for a pigeon, $398,500 to be exact. This is a world record price for a pigeon. You are probably wondering why on earth this particular pigeon possessed such an extravagant price tag. Well it is a one-year-old racing pigeon named Bolt, that was bred by Belgian pigeon fancier Leo Hereman.

Mr Hereman is a well-known name to those in the know about pigeon racing. He has become extremely wealthy from his bird expertise, as he has just sold his entire collection of 530 birds at an auction over the weekend for 4.3 million euros.

“You can compare it to artwork. A painting made by Picasso is worth more than one made by an unknown artist. It’s the same with this pigeon,” said Nikolaas Gyselbrecht of pigeon auction site PIPA.

Due to the pigeon’s young age, the Chinese businessman who bought Bolt should still be able to use the pigeon for breeding for another eight years according to Gyselbrecht.

The sale of this pigeon highlights the growing attraction of high-profile pigeon breeding and racing among rich Asians. In fact, nine of the 10 most expensive pigeons sold at the auction were purchased by Chinese or Taiwanese clients, despite the event attracting interest from 27 countries.

Was this pigeon a wise investment?

Source: [Reuters]