TOKYO: A monster bluefin tuna sold for a record-breaking $1.8 million in the year’s first auction at Japan’s Tsukiji fish market on Saturday, nearly three times the previous high set last year.
The 222-kilogram (488-pound) fish, caught off Japan’s northern city of Oma, fetched a winning bid of 155.4 million yen (about $1.8 million), said an official at the Tokyo fish market.
The figure dwarfs the previous high of 56.49 million yen paid at last year’s inaugural auction at Tsukiji, a huge working market that features on many Tokyo tourist itineraries.
Saturday’s winning bidder was Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the company that runs the popular Sushi-Zanmai chain, who also won the auction for last year’s record-breaking bluefin.
“I wanted to meet expectations of my customers who said they wanted to eat Japan’s best tuna again this year,” Kimura was quoted by Jiji Press as saying after the intense pre-dawn bidding.
“With this good tuna, I hope to help cheer up Japan,” Kimura said.
Based on the price paid — around 700,000 yen per kilogram — a single slice of sushi from the monster fish would cost diners as much as 30,000 yen.
But Kimura plans to sell it at a huge loss, for a more realistic price of up to 398 yen per portion, local media reported.
Bluefin is usually the most expensive fish available at Tsukiji.
Decades of overfishing have seen global tuna stocks crash, leading some Western nations to call for a ban on catching endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Japan consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as “kuro maguro” (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs the “black diamond” because of its scarcity.
A piece of “otoro” or fatty underbelly can cost some 2,000 yen at high-end Tokyo restaurants.
Giant tuna sells for record $1.8 million in Japan
Giant tuna sells for record $1.8 million in Japan
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
