We now know who owns the world’s most expensive stamp.
The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta was purchased for $9.5 million at an auction last year. The buyer’s identity wasn’t disclosed.
Last week, the National Postal Museum began displaying the stamp and revealed the owner: famed shoe designer and philanthropist Stuart Weitzman.
Weitzman, who collected stamps as a boy, said he kept an unfilled square in his childhood album for the One-Cent Magenta. When the stamp went up for auction, he didn’t hesitate to bid.
“It took me back to my childhood,” Weitzman told The New York Times, recalling how he used to send his mother to the Post Office to buy blocks of stamps. “It was sort of like going back to the house I grew up in.”
The One-Cent Magenta also has become part of Weitzman’s future: He’ll soon release a series of purple shoes inspired by the stamp,