While fans go to great lengths to get closer to their favourite actors and collect films, collecting movie props happen to be another way of showing their love and fandom. Movie memorabilia has grown as a huge business and fans don’t mind spending huge amounts of money as the value of such memorabilia keeps growing. Here are some of the most expensive film props ever sold:
Steve McQueen’s racing suit from Le Mans
Price: $984,000
Steve McQueen is famously associated with the Le Mans driving suit. One of the three suits used in the 1971 film Le Mans was sold in 2011 for $984,000. The suit was owned by Timothy Davies from Wolverhampton, UK, for 40 years after he won it in a newspaper competition at the age of 12.
Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz
Price: $666,000
The ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939) are one of the most valuable movie props but haven’t been auctioned a lot. Only four pairs are known to survive, one of which is on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The last pair to sell at the auction in 2000 went for $666,000. The slippers were actually silver in L. Frank Baum’s original book, but producers felt that silver would not show up well against the yellow brick road on film, and the shoes were changed to ruby colour. In 2005, a pair of the slippers were stolen from The Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota, and in 2015 an anonymous benefactor offered a $1 million reward to anyone giving information leading to their return.
Marilyn Monroe’s dress from The Seven Year Itch
Price: $4.6 million
The most expensive movie costume ever sold is Marilyn Monroe’s iconic white dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955), which sold at auction in Los Angeles for $4.6 million in 2011. It was sold as part of actress Debbie Reynolds’ amazing Hollywood costume collection, which also included the head dress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963) and a bowler hat owned by Charlie Chaplin. Reynolds wanted to open a museum to display her collection of over 3,500 items, but the project never took off and she decided to sell.
Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s black dress
Price: $807,000
The famous black dress made for Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) was sold in London for $807,000 in 2006. The massive price tag was a huge shock to experts, who had predicted it would sell for a maximum of $138,000. Hepburn, as Holly Golightly, wore a version of the dress in the opening scene of the movie as she steps out of a bright yellow taxi. Two other copies of the dress survive, one as an archive and other as a museum artefact in Madrid.
James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger
Price: $4.6 million
Aston Martin DB5 was driven by Sean Connery who played James Bond in the films Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965). The car was sold at an auction in 2010 for $4.6 million. It was one of the two cars used in Goldfinger. The Road Car was originally sold for $12,000 in 1969 to radio executive Jerry Lee, who mostly kept it in storage. The other original Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5 was stolen in 1997 from an airport hangar in Boca Raton and has not been seen since.
