A menu card from a state dinner from 1956 that was signed by Chinese leader Mao Zedong was just sold at auction for a whopping $275,000. The menu card was for a banquet commemorating the first state visit of Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy of Pakistan to China.
Along with Mao Zedong, the menu card also features signatures from six influential Chinese statesmen, including Premier Zhou Enlai, Huang Yanpei (vice premier of the State Council and Minister of Industry), and Zhu De (vice chairman of the Communist Party and the PRC, renowned as Mao’s military adviser).
“To hold a menu signed by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai is to hold a piece of the past – a piece that tells a story of diplomatic engagement, cultural exchange and the forging of friendships that have endured through the decades,” Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction who was in charge of the sale, said in a statement.
The menu card features nine items, featuring dishes and delicacies from both Pakistan and China for the state dinner. The menu card wasn’t the only piece of history being sold at auction either. Other items included a fully operational Second World War era enigma cipher machine, a cheque signed by Steve Jobs, a light bulb patent signed by Thomas Edison, a letter signed by Joseph Stalin, among others.