Going, going, gone . . .

A 1623 book that brought together William Shakespeare’s plays for the first time sold for a record $US9.97 million ($NZ15 million) at auction yesterday, Christie’s in New York said.

The First Folio, containing 36 of Shakespeare’s plays — one of only six known complete copies in private hands — was bought by American private collector Stephan Loewentheil.

The price also marked a world record for any printed work of literature sold at auction, and smashed the previous high of $US6.16 million for a Shakespeare First Folio set in 2001, Christie’s said.

Comedies, Histories and Tragedies was compiled seven years after the playwright’s death. It includes 18 plays that had never been published before and might have been lost, including Macbeth and Julius Caesar.

A young shaheen peregrine falcon in Saudi Arabia has sold for more than $US170,000 ($NZ256,000), the most expensive sale ever of that type of bird and the costliest purchase so far at an annual 45day auction of the hunting birds cherished in Gulf countries.

The price reflected the bird’s unique characteristics and scarcity, auction officials said in a statement.

Falconry is an important part of the cultural desert heritage of the Arabs of Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries. Falcons, whose flight speeds can exceed 300kmh, are recognised internationally as endangered.

The recordbreaking bird, weighing 1.1kg, was captured in Hafer alBatin, in northeast Saudi Arabia.

The auction, from October 3 to November 15, is organised by the Saudi Falcon Club, founded in 2017 and supported by the Government as a way to preserve the heritage activity.