'Last Lunch with Buffett' Costs 24.6 Billion Won... Highest Price Ever

Outlook for This Year's Final Event: Sold for Over 4 Times Previous Highest Price
Held at a Steakhouse in Manhattan, New York... The Only Forbidden Question Was 'Buffett's Investment Destinations'

Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway in the United States, is attending the annual shareholders meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska on May 4, 2019 (local time). [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Nayeon] '24.6 billion KRW.' This is the price for a lunch with Warren Buffett, the 'Oracle of Omaha,' Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, this year.

According to Bloomberg on the 17th (local time), the charity lunch auction with Chairman Buffett, which closed through eBay auction that day, was won for 19 million USD (approximately 24.6 billion KRW).

The lunch with Chairman Buffett is a charity event held once a year since 2000. Chairman Buffett has donated the auction proceeds to the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization supporting the underprivileged. The event was not held in 2020 and last year due to the spread of COVID-19, so this year's event resumed after three years.

This year's winning bid is the highest ever. It is four times higher than the previous record of 4.57 million USD in 2019. In 2019, the winning bidder was cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.

The soaring lunch auction price is partly due to the event reopening after three years, but also because there are expectations that Chairman Buffett will no longer hold the event after this year. Bidders eager to share what might be the last lunch with him drove the price up.

eBay, which hosted the auction, stated that this year's lunch winning price is the highest among charity items sold through their auctions.

The winning bidder will dine with Chairman Buffett at Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in Manhattan, New York. The maximum number of people at the table is seven, including the two. The identity of the winning bidder has not yet been disclosed.

The winning bidder can freely discuss any topic with Chairman Buffett except for one. The only prohibited topic during the meal is Chairman Buffett's 'future investment destinations.'

Meanwhile, the total amount Chairman Buffett has donated to the foundation through this event has reached 34.1 million USD so far.