Actress Elizabeth Eastman displays truffles in London as part of an international auction. The U.K. bidding was at Franco’s restaurant. Photograph: Richard Vines/Bloomberg.

Piers Boothman of Christie’s International seeks bidders at an auction of white truffles in London. Over his shoulder, a screen shows the simultaneous sale in Rome. Photographer: Richard Vines/ Bloomberg.

White truffles worth about $5,000 are displayed at owner Tony May’s SD26 restaurant in New York, U.S., on Nov. 9, 2009. Small portions of truffles are offered shaved over spinach and egg yolk-filled ravioli. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg

Stanley Ho, a Macau billionaire,
paid the top price in an international white-truffle auction
that raised a total of $417,200.

The highest bid during Saturday’s sale, held simultaneously
in London, Rome and Macau, was $330,000 for two pieces of the
rate tuber weighing a total 1.3 kilograms (2.87 pounds). It came
in Macau on behalf of Ho, chairman of SJM Holdings Ltd., Asia’s
biggest listed casino operator, according to one of the
organizers of the London event, Bruno Giorgi.

“It was fun,” said Piers Boothman, associate director of
Christie’s International, the London auctioneer at Franco’s
restaurant, on Jermyn Street. “Most of the bidding came from
Macau, but we contributed here as well.”

Truffle prices are boosted by the charitable element at
sales such as this. Ho’s bid was for a 900 gram truffle from
Tuscany and a 400 gram truffle from Molise. The top winning bid
in London — $7,000, for five truffles, weighing a total of 274
grams — came via telephone from a French group, Giorgi said. He
wouldn’t identify the bidders.

The auction followed a four-course lunch in London, where
diners enjoyed Italian white truffle with porcini and quail
eggs; white truffle risotto; veal entrecote with white-truffle
potato puree; and Prosecco-poached pears with white-truffle
zabaglione. Tickets to the sale cost 150 pounds ($234).

Bidding was relayed via satellite from Don Alfonso 1890
restaurant in Macau; and La Pergola, in Rome.

Proceeds from the sale go to the charity picked by each
location. The Hambro family, which owns Franco’s, chose the
Institute of Cancer Research in London.

In 2007, a record $330,000 was paid by Ho for a 1.5
kilogram white truffle. The artist Damien Hirst was among the
unsuccessful bidders. In 2008, the largest truffle of the year,
1.08 kilograms, sold at the international auction for $200,000.

To contact the writer on the story:
Richard Vines in London at
rvines@bloomberg.net or Richardvines on
http://twitter.com/home.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net.