Now I realize that $30,000 for a single white truffle might seem like a lot, but it’s peanuts compared with last year's record bid of $330,000. As reported by the FT, business executives and celebrities packed into Tokyo's Ritz-Carlton over the weekend for the annual auction of Alba white truffles from Italy’s Piedmont region. The global economic slowdown has definitely taken its toll.

The investment bankers, Chinese magnates and other high-rollers who drove white-truffle prices sky-high in recent years were conspicuously absent on Sunday. The total raised by the three simultaneous auctions this year was euro 118,000 ($151,048) compared to about euro 417,952 ($535,000) last year. Even so, bidders in Moscow and elsewhere phoned in some offers, noted Ricco DeBlank, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo and chief truffle auctioneer.

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Unlike commercial art auctions, however, all proceeds from the truffle sale go to charity including, this year, to international children’s and cancer charities. So while it may seem a little frivolous in crisis times, it was all for a good cause, noted Nick Wood, a Tokyo-based composer and music entrepreneur who successfully bid Y625,000 for a 196g truffle. ”If you can buy a white truffle, have fun with it, and help some poor kids with cancer at the same time, surely that’s the best – a triple whammy”.