New Kim is a 2-year-old homing pigeon that just sold for $1.9 million. The anonymous new owner of New Kim is the same person who last year paid $1.48 million for Armando, another champion pigeon. From the New York Times:
In the sport, which dates back to at least the 1800s, homing pigeons are acclimated in a shared loft before being taken hundreds of miles away and released; the winner is the first to return. Soaring auction prices are only one sign of the sport's increasing glamour and competitiveness in China: Two men were convicted by a Shanghai court in 2018 of trying to fix a high-stakes race by putting their pigeons on a bullet train.
New Kim, according to Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, the founder of PIPA, had two distinctions that helped her reach such an exorbitant price: She "performed as the best bird in Belgium in 2018," and she was among the last birds to be raised by Gaston Van de Wouwer, a famous breeder who has since retired.
"You could compare it to a Picasso painting," Mr. Gyselbrecht said, referring to New Kim. "It will sell more than a local American artist."
