Modern projection televisions, flat panel LCDs and plasma TVs have come a long way since the black and white tubes which were first introduced in the mid-20th century. The TV is the centerpiece of most living rooms and often the TV is the most expensive purchase for one’s home theater system. If you really want to impress someone with your TV, though, then check out these, the most expensive televisions in the world.

Yalos Diamond – $140,000

From Italian company Keymat Industrie comes an expensive television studded with 160 real diamonds, totaling 20 carats. This expensive TV has no visible screws or welds, and the aesthetics are the work of Japanese designer Takahide Sano. This extravagant television can be purchased in sizes up to 46″.

Beovision 4-103 – $140,000

If you’re in the market for a television that’s priced for its technical merits, however, then you’ll want to take a look at the BeoVision 4-103. Featuring a 103”, 100 Hz plasma screen, this Bang & Olufsen television set acknowledges that size really does matter.

Its substantial viewing area isn’t its only feature, though, as the BeoVision 4-103 also features a motorized stand so that you can adjust the viewing angle on the fly. Auto Color Management and Auto Picture Control make sure that you always have the best possible picture, regardless of how much ambient light is in the room or how old the color elements in the plasma screen are.

Stuart Hughes’ PrestigeHD Supreme Rose Edition – $2.26 million

Luxury gadgeteer Stuart Hughes is at it again. After recently making a splash with the gold video game consoles, Hughes has tackled the common element that binds us all together–television. This 55″ PrestigeHD television, powered by Metz, is coated in 28 kilograms of 18k rose gold embellished with seventy-two round cut, flawless 1-carat diamonds. That’s not the end of the luxury materials used in its creation, however, as the most expensive television in the world features alligator skin hand sewn into the bezel.

For those whose wealth can support only slightly less epicurean lifestyles, the PrestigeHD Supreme Edition may be a more cost effective alternative to the Supreme Rose Edition. This one features only 19 kilograms of 22k yellow gold and the 48 brilliant round cut diamonds are only .75 carats apiece. It also features aventurine and topaz gems, all for $1.5 million.

Lancelot Encore

In early 2009, a Florida couple became the proud owners of Lancelot Encore, the world’s first commercially cloned puppy and one of the most expensive dogs in the world.

The Labrador retriever was cloned from samples thoughtfully taken by the couple five years ago from their beloved pet Lancelot. The cloned puppy looks just like his predecessor and the couple hopes that, being around the same people and many of the same dogs, Lancelot Encore will be every bit the alpha male that the original Lancelot was.

The couple won the chance to have their pet cloned in an auction held last July by BioArts, a California-based firm that employed Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation to recreate their darling dog. The hammer price of the pricey pooch was $155,000. That’s $100,000 more than was last paid for a commercially cloned animal, a bull named Second Chance.

A black Tibetan Mastiff

Later that year, however, Lancelot Encore’s price was dwarfed by the sale of a black Tibetan Mastiff named Yangtze River Number 2. Yangtze’s new owner, a Chinese millionaire identified only as Ms. Wang, met the pup while visiting Yushu in China’s Qinghai province with a Tibetan Mastiff she wished to breed with one of the region’s storied pureblood canines. As soon as she met the dog, then known as White Root, she knew she had to have him. Ultimately, she ended up paying $582,000 for the most expensive dog in the world.

Upon his arrival at an airport in Xi’an, Yangtze was greeted by a motorcade of thirty luxury cars and a crowd of spectators.

Look up “mastiff” in the dictionary and “large” and “powerful” will be among the first words you read. The different mastiff breeds have been bred for guarding and for fighting. The two most expensive dog breeds in the world are the Tibetan Mastiff and French Mastiff.

A Tibetan Mastiff

The largest Tibetan Mastiffs can stand over 31 inches tall and the breed typically weighs over 140 lbs. The dogs can be black, grey, brown or even, in some rare instances, completely white. Best of all, their coats shed odors—they lack the troublesome aroma that afflicts other large dogs. In both their native Tibet and the West, they have been prized as livestock guardians and have even been reported to have killed tigers to protect their flock.

The world’s most expensive dog, Yangtze River No. 2, was a Tibetan Mastiff.

A French Mastiff
(Image distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.)

Typically standing over 24 inches and weighing more than 100 lbs, the French Mastiff can be a terror if not socialized at an early age. The sport of dog fighting was popular in Bordeaux, France, and the Dogue de Bordeaux, as the breed is more properly called, proudly bears the city’s name. The expensive breed may trace its ancestry to the Alans/Alaunts, a breed of dog from the Middle Ages, or the Bulldog. It was known in France as early as the 14th century and was entered into its first show in the 1863. It wasn’t until the 1920’s, though, that the French Mastiff became a uniform breed. The dog was virtually unknown outside of France until the late 1800s and was threatened with extinction after WWII. In 1970, though, the Dogue de Bordeaux population began to grow again.

Famous French Mastiffs include Beasley, who starred alongside Tom Hanks in Turner & Hooch, and Mac, recently stolen from and returned to Dutch football player Andy van der Meyde.

The average price for a puppy from one of these expensive breeds is $750 to $1,000.

Related Information

• Most Popular Dog Breeds
• Most Popular Dog Names

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FC08
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