
Nothing Mooch loves more than free stuff (usually in the form of a taxpayer-funded vacation).
WASHINGTON — From furniture and food to fine art, members of the Obama administration received thousands of dollars in gifts from foreign leaders, but first lady Michelle Obama appears to have received the most expensive gift last year.
The State Department reported Tuesday that the queen of Brunei gave Mrs. Obama jewelry worth $71,468 in 2013. The flower-shaped white gold earrings, ring and necklace were studded with yellow sapphires and diamonds, according to the department’s annual accounting of gifts published in the Federal Register. That’s almost seven times more valuable than the most expensive gift received by President Barack Obama, a glass amber-colored sculpture of a falcon on a branch worth $10,400 from Qatar’s ambassador to the U.S.
Not that the president fared poorly. He also received a large Azerbaijani rug with red, white and blue geometric designs worth $6,560 from the ambassador of Azerbaijan; a silver platter engraved with major world cities, their global positioning coordinates and distance from Qatar from that country’s emir, valued at $6,500; a full felt-mounted zebra skin, a painting and sculpture worth $4,000 from the president of Tanzania; and a $4,000 brown upholstered chair from the prime minister of Singapore, according to the records.
