The New York Public Library will begin displaying a giant art book that is being advertised as the most expensive book in the world.
It's a $100,000, 62-pound tome that takes six months for each copy to create--bound in marble and covered in velvet. The subject matter is Michelangelo and the reason it's being published is to display a symbolic middle finger to the Internet, and the anti-bibliophile world it signifies.
"This book is meant as a provocation," publisher Marilena Ferrari told the Associated Press. "Books are being destroyed by the Internet, they're losing their identity -- it's the modern, Internet version of burning books. Today, things last so little before they disappear."
The title is "La Dotta Mano," which means "learned hand" and was chosen as a tribute to the craft of bookmaking. The volume will be on display at the NYPL's main branch on 5th Ave. and 42nd St. starting next Tuesday and until Dec. 8.
