Heidi Klum cajoles boyfriend to buy her $30,000 plastic snail

MILAN – Heidi Klum gently, but persistently cajoled her boyfriend Vito Schnabel buy her a giant plastic snail at the 7th annual Milan amfAR auction, nudging up the price of the sculpture and helping raise a Milan record of $1.6 million for the charity.

“Vito, I thought you were going to buy me the snail!” the model, who chaired the event, pleaded from stage Saturday night, as bidding heated up.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Vito, I thought you were going to buy me the snail!" the model, who chaired the event, pleaded from stage Saturday night, as bidding heated up.

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A few bids later, the 29-year-old art dealer won the 3-meter (11-foot) snail by the Europe-based Cracking Art Group for 20,000 euro ($30,027 CAD). Klum, a 42-year-old mother of four, said she planned to put it in her garden.

The amfAR charity raises money for AIDS research, with the goal of finding a cure for AIDS by 2020. The organization’s chairman Kenneth Cole told the crowd that the money raised at the auction would be used to set up an amfAR institute for the cure.