Most expensive doll’s house

A doll’s house valued at $8.5 m (£6 m) is the most expensive doll’s house in the world. The 29-room "Astolat Dollhouse Castle" was constructed over a period of 13 years (between 1974 and 1987) by American artist Elaine Diehl. Modelled after the castle in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s "The Lady of Shalott", the 9-ft-tall (2.7-m) doll’s house contains 10,000 miniature items, including a grand piano that cost $7,000 (£4,900), an ornate desk worth more than $5,000 (£3,500) and a tiny portrait painted with a single-bristle brush, valued at $1,840 (£1,290). The doll’s house weighs 800 pounds (363 kg) and boasts a total floor area of almost 30 square feet (2.74 m²).

During 2015 and early 2016, the doll’s house was on display in the USA at the Nassau County Museum of Art, New York State, and the Time-Warner Center at Columbus Circle in the heart of New York City, with proceeds going to the charity Autism Speaks.