Shakespeare's first folio sells for $2.4m at New York auction
A 400-year-old book, known as Shakespeare's first folio, has been sold in New York for $2.4m (£2m), BBC News reports.
Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, printed in 1623, is made up of 36 of the playwright's masterpieces.
It is believed that the manuscripts for popular plays Macbeth and Henry VIII would have been lost without the collection's publication.
It was sold on Thursday at a Sotheby's auction.
Labelled in the auction listing as "the most important book in English Literature" it was published seven years after the Stratford-upon-Avon writer's death.
It includes an engraved portrait of the author and poetical tributes by Ben Johnson and others.
About 750 copies of the first folio were originally printed but only 232 have survived, the auctioneer has said.
The present copy is estimated to be one of just 20 remaining in private ownership with the rest currently displayed in museums and libraries across the world.