An anonymous bidder paid a record-breaking $19 million for a private lunch with Warren Buffett last Friday.
The winner will enjoy a lunch with Buffett and up to seven guests at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in New York City, according to an eBay release.
The sale was part of the 21st annual auction for a lunch with Buffett, produced in collaboration with eBay and the San Francisco based Glide Foundation. The bidding started with $25,000.
This last record for the private lunch was established in 2019 at $4.5 million. The next two years the famous auction was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
The record-breaking auction came at the last so-called “power lunch” with the billionaire. The annual auction has raised over $53 million for Glide in over 21 auctions since 2000.
“On behalf of Glide and those we serve, I thank Warren Buffett for his unwavering generosity, partnership and dedication, and for his incredible contribution to our mission,” said the organization’s president and CEO Karen Hanrahan in the news release.
Glide helps the poor, homeless, people suffering from substance abuse and offers job training and children’s programs, among other activities.
The chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway has donated for charity and foundations more than half of his shares of the Omaha, Oklahoma based company since 2006, including $4 billion on June 14.
