Macau casino tycoon pays $330,000 for two truffles

Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho paid $330,000 (€249,744) for two white truffles at a weekend auction, a report said yesterday, matching the record price he paid for one of the prized fungi three years ago.

The billionaire made his winning bid through representatives at the event held at his own Grand Lisboa hotel in the Asian gambling hub, the fourth straight year he has won the truffle auction, the Standard newspaper reported.

Mr Ho’s winning bid bought him a giant truffle from Italy’s central Tuscany region that weighed about 900 grams and a smaller one of about 400 grams, the report said.

The auction in Macau, a former Portuguese colony returned to China in 1999, also saw bidders vie for the delicacy from Rome and London via satellite link, it said.

Mr Ho paid a record $330,000 in 2007 for a single truffle that weighed almost 1.5 kilograms. The tycoon’s bid came about two weeks after a Hong Kong-based wine critic paid €105,000 for a giant white truffle at an auction near the northern Italian town of Alba.