A very expensive rug

The famed Pearl Carpet of Baroda has an astonishing starting price of $5m and will become a record breaking rug if it sells, beating the rug that sold for $4.45 million back in 2008.

The silk Persian rug in New York, Christies that sold in 2008 broke all records for the highest grossing rug but this Pearl Carpet of Baroda is expected to reach way over the $5 million mark.

The sale of the spectacular rug will be handled by Sotheby's and the auction will be the first for their new offices in Doha. Commissioned by the Maharaja of Baroda in India in the 18th century, the Pearl Carpet was created using an estimated two million natural seed pearls farmed from the Arabian Gulf. Embossed with gold set diamonds, rubies and emeralds in their hundreds, the centre piece of the exquisite rug are three large round rosettes put together using table cut diamonds set in silvered gold. This rug is seriously blinged out!

Originally intended to be gifted to the tomb of the prophet Mohammed in Medina, the Baroda rug never made it to its intended destination as "Gaekwar" Kande Rao, the Maharaja of Baroda, died before the rug could be delivered. The persian silk rug designed to echo a similar rug that exists in the Taj Mahal, the Baroda example has remained in the Indian princely family since the Maharaja's death, briefly appearing at exhibitions such as the 1985 landmark exhibition 'India' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.