Top 5 Most Expensive Gifts Ever Given

Everyone loves giving presents! It's arguably a better feeling to give presents, rather than receive!  Seeing the recipient's face light up with pure joy is such a great feeling and leaves us feeling warm and fuzzy inside!

Throughout the course of history, gifts have been handed to children, lovers, and friends/family. Even when Neanderthals roamed our world, up to 130,000 years ago, they would gift unique looking rocks, tools, and other such items to each other.  

As humanity advanced, so did our taste for the extravagant! Here's a shortlist, of some of the most expensive gifts ever given! 

5. Tian Yacht 

• Cost/Price/Value – $84 million
• Who Gave It? – Anil Ambani
• To Whom/Receiver – Tina Ambani
• Purpose – Love

We'll imagine you're not surprised a Yacht has made it onto this list! The Ambani family from India which owns the industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries is one of the richest families in the world with an estimated wealth of about $81.3 billion!

4. The Jewel In The Crown, Koh-I-Noor 

• Cost/Price/Value – $485 million
• Who Gave It? – Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Duleep Singh
• To Whom/Receiver – Queen Victoria
  
• Purpose – Symbol of a treaty

Naturally, a jewel would also be somewhere here on this list! The Jewel in the Crown is an 86-carat Koh-i-noor diamond presented to Queen Victoria by Duleep Singh, The last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire in the year 1849. Though the gift was well-received, the Queen considered the design of the diamond jewel somewhat drab and instead had her consort, Prince Albert, fashion it into 105.6-carat diamond jewellery.

3. The Taj Mahal 

• Cost/Price/Value – $827 million
• Who Gave It? –Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan
• To Whom/Receiver –Mumtaz Mahal
• Purpose – Burial

The Taj Mahal was built from 1632–53 by and during the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628 to 1658) as the tomb house of his beloved and favourite late wife – Mumtaz Mahal.

2. Cubist Masterpieces 

• Cost/Price/Value – $1.1 billion
• Who Gave It? – Leonard Lauder
• To Whom/Receiver – Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
• Purpose – Philantrophy/donation

Of course, Art has its place somewhere on this list! The Cubist masterpieces are a collection of artworks made by Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, and ceramicist; French painter and collagist – Georges Braque; Juan Gris another Spanish painter and French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker – Fernand Legér.

1. American War of Independence 

• Cost/Price/Value – $20 billion
• Who Gave It? – France
• To Whom/Receiver – The United States of America
• Purpose – War funding

The most expensive gift ever given in recorded history was spent on a war that brought about the loss of lives but ultimately the liberation of America from Great Britain. Having been fighting since 1775 and already cash trapped, America signed a treaty of alliance with France in 1778, and in return, they got French supplies of military equipment and money to see through the war. At that time, it cost France about 1.3 billion livres which in today’s nominal value is about $20 billion.

There you have some of the most expensive gifts ever given! Are you looking for a more...affordable gift? We have you covered!  

Check our best-selling cushions here!