MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s nickel king has secured himself a rare treat – buying what a New York restaurateur claims is the world’s largest white truffle, US media reported.
Vladimir Potanin shelled out $95,000 for the truffle, which tipped the scales at 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds), The New York Post gossip section, Page Six, reported late Sunday.
According to Page Six, restaurateur Nello Balan said he sold Potanin the truffle, which he claims is the biggest on record, last Thursday. Balan did not reveal where the truffle came from.
Potanin has not commented publicly on the reported purchase.
The previous record holder, found in Italy in 2007, weighed 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds).
It looks like Potanin – CEO and major shareholder at Norilsk Nickel with a fortune that Forbes estimated this year at $14.3 billion – may have gotten a bargain, since smaller white truffles have fetched $330,000 on at least two separate occasions, in 2007 and 2010. In both cases the purchase was made by Stanley Ho, who controls much of Macao’s gambling industry.
