A STAMP so rare it is known as the Mona Lisa has set a record after going on sale at auction in New York, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.

    The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta postage stamp sold for US$9.5 million, making it both the world’s most expensive stamp and, at just 2.5 cm by 3.2 cm, the most valuable object by weight and size.

    The only one of its kind still in existence, the Magenta has a history even more colorful than its design.

    Owned until recently by a multimillionaire who was convicted of murdering an Olympic wrestler, the stamp was one of a small number printed by a local newspaper 158 years ago at the request of a postmaster when weather delayed the delivery of postal materials to the then-British colony of Guiana, now known as Guyana, from England.

    The Manhattan branch of the auctioneer Sotheby’s was packed for the sale, which ended when the stamp was won by an anonymous telephone bidder.

    David Redden, worldwide chairman of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, said: “Every time it has come up for auction and sold, it has brought the highest price ever paid for a stamp.

    “It has always been the world’s most-famous stamp. It is one of these objects around which a huge mystique has grown up over the years.”

    The One-Cent Magenta was sold by the estate of John du Pont, heir to the du Pont chemical family, who died in prison in 2010, 13 years after being convicted of third degree murder for shooting to death his friend David Schultz, an Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler.

    The stamp’s authenticity was established in 1935 and confirmed earlier this year by the Royal Philatelic Society of London.  (SD-Agencies)