$100,000 new book arrives at library

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s billed as the world’s most expensive, most beautiful new book.

Valued at well over $100,000, a 62-pound handmade tome depicting the life and work of Michelangelo has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy.

The velvet- and marble-bound book will go on public display Tuesday.

It takes six months to make each book, using Italian artisan skills dating to the Renaissance. The copy on display was donated to the library, but more than 20 books have been sold.

“I love books,” Marilena Ferrari, the Italian publisher who produced the extravagance, said in a telephone interview from Bologna, Italy, where she’s president of a company called FMR, which publishes fine books about art.

“Books are being destroyed by the Internet, they’re losing their identity — it’s the modern, Internet version of burning books,” she said.