Which was the better choice? Get a nice room, for her lifetime, on the cheap, or wait two hundred years and cash in?

An aristocrat papered her walls with pictures ripped from one of the world's most expensive books, which experts believe could now be worth £7m. 

In 1827, Lady Isabella Hertford decorated her Chinese Drawing Room at her mansion in Leeds with 28 pictures from John James Audobon's The Birds of America.

The book - of which there are now just 119 copies in existence - had been given to Lady Hertford by her lover the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV. 

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One of the world's rarest books could have fetched £7m at auction - but the aristocrat who owned it cut it into wallpaper instead (as shown above)

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The book - of which there are now just 119 copies in existence - had been given to Lady Hertford (pictured above) by her lover the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV

But experts believe that the book could have fetched millions at auction today if it had been kept intact. 

In 2010, one copy of the book was sold for the record price of £7m at Sotheby's in London. The previous record was £6.9m.  

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3419387/One-world-s-rarest-books-fetched-7million-auction-owner-hadn-t-cut-wallpaper.html#ixzz3yehBRyii