‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ sells for $1.5 million in New York

A diamond-set edition of Truman Capote’s seminal novel “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” has sold for $1.5 million to mark the centenary of the author’s birth.

The one-of-a-kind book, on display at the New York International Antique Book Fair, is signed by the author and embellished with nearly 30 carats of diamonds and a sapphire.

“The streets of London are paved with gold…the streets of New York are paved with platinum and diamonds,” said British artist Kate Holland, who created a special edition of the 1958 novella.

British jewelers Bentley and Skinner collaborated for three years with American luxury bookseller Lux Mentis to produce the piece, which is on display at the book fair in downtown Manhattan until Sunday.

More than 1,000 diamonds are arranged into the outline of Manhattan’s unique grid system.

The sapphire is located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, home to jeweler Tiffany & Co.’s legendary flagship store, which reopens in April 2023 and is owned by French global luxury goods giant LVMH.

Tiffany’s has been a beacon of luxury in New York since 1940, best known for its adaptation of the Blake Edwards-directed film of the same name, starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. The novel will go down in history.

This romantic comedy with a psychological edge, and a dark novel about the character’s childhood trauma, tells the story of Holly Golightly. Holly Golightly is a whimsical young socialite living in New York City on her own charm and dreaming of marrying a billionaire and bathing her in jewels.

Holland describes the novel as “a love story about New York,” a global center for art, luxury goods and finance.

While the artist admits the $1.5 million price tag is “uncomfortable,” she believes the book can be displayed rather than “put in a box on a shelf.”

Capote was known for his controversy and writing, and since his death in Los Angeles a month before his 60th birthday, his work and life have been adapted for the screen.

Most recently, his exploits were dramatized in Gus Van Sant’s Feud: The Betrayals of Truman Capote, directed by Tom Ho Starring Tom Hollander, Naomi Watts, Diane Lane and Demi Moore.