Macau Billionaire Pays Record Price for Truffles

A Macau businessman has paid a record price for a pair of Italian truffles, including one that weighs 900 grams.

Casino mogul and billionaire Stanley Ho made the winning bid Saturday at a charity auction held at his Grand Lisboa hotel in the former Portuguese colony of Macau. Bidders also participated via satellite link in Rome and London.

Ho bid $330,000 for the two giant fungi. The 900-gram truffle was dug up in Tuscany, while the second, weighing 400 grams, was found in Molise in southern Italy.

In 2007, Ho paid the same amount of money for a 1.5-kilogram white truffle unearthed in Tuscany.

This is the height of the truffle season in Italy, when restaurants charge sky-high prices for pasta and other dishes made with the edible fungus. (VOA)