$420,600 and counting for 'power lunch' with Warren Buffett

By Tiffany Hsu

June 8, 2012 8:44 AM PT

Want a “power lunch” with billionaire financier Warren Buffett? Get ready to shell out at least $420,600 for the privilege.

So far, that’s the top bid in an annual charity auction to dine with seven friends and Buffett at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York. Proceeds benefit the Glide foundation, a social service group working out of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Participants in the auction, being held on Ebay, must be pre-approved. The bidding began on Sunday, starting at $25,000.

Last year, Charlottesville, Va.-based hedge fund manager Ted Weschler shelled out a record $2.63 million for the meal, after paying slightly less for the honor in 2010. Since then, Buffett has hired Weschler to help oversee his investments.

The Berkshire Hathaway chief executive has helped raise more than $11 million for Glide in a dozen years. At the moment, there are nine bidders who have made 86 bids. The auction closes at 7:30 p.m.

Besides do-gooding, 81-year-old Buffett has kept busy recently buying up newspapers and trying to reassure shareholders that his recent prostate cancer diagnosis isn’t slowing him down.

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