Rory Stewart: Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?

Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Rory Stewart said elsewhere, not written here

A painting of a man who was killed on the Dutch coast in 1600.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Patricia Hodge English actress

My piano, a boudoir grand. I’ve played since I was six.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2018 source ↗

Simon Mayo English radio presenter and author

My glasses. They were more than a grand.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 August 2020 source ↗

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen English interior designer and television personality

My wife. I am a lavish present-giver. I love worshipping my wife with beautiful bits and pieces – it is one of my greatest pleasures.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Adam Clayton

In 1992 I was in New York, and somebody showed me a work by Louise Bourgeois. I never realised that sculpture could move me, and I was so affected by this piece that I bought it. It was a lot of money.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 December 2024 source ↗