C-3PO's head, 'Titanic' costumes for sale at Propstore film auction

03 October 2023 - 14:00 By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
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Don Vito Corleone's coat worn by Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather', Jack Dawson's costume worn by Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Titanic', and James Bond's tuxedo worn by Daniel Craig in 'James Bond: No Time to Die' are displayed at Propstore in Chenies, Britain, September 20, 2023. The costumes will be auctioned with other film & TV memorabilia this November.
Don Vito Corleone's coat worn by Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather', Jack Dawson's costume worn by Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Titanic', and James Bond's tuxedo worn by Daniel Craig in 'James Bond: No Time to Die' are displayed at Propstore in Chenies, Britain, September 20, 2023. The costumes will be auctioned with other film & TV memorabilia this November.
Image: SUZANNE PLUNKETT/REUTERS

From Star Wars droid C-3PO's head to Leonardo DiCaprio's Titanic costume, a trove of costumes and props are headed to auction next month in a sale of film and television memorabilia worth about R280m.

More than 1,800 items are being sold by entertainment memorabilia auctioneer Propstore at its annual live auction, which this year runs from November 9 to 12.

Leading the sale, which Propstore estimates will fetch more than £12m (R279m), is the light-up head actor Anthony Daniels wore to play C-3PO in Star Wars: A New Hope, with an estimate of £500,000— £1m (R11.6m — R27.9m).

Daniels is also selling other Star Wars memorabilia.

“We have his complete archive from his time of working on the Star Wars films so that includes some of the props and body components and parts, his head, his hands, his feet,” Propstore founder and CEO Stephen Lane told Reuters.

“We have his original scripts with the annotations in there as well.”

Costumes for sale include a shirt, waistcoat and trousers DiCaprio wore in Titanic (£100,000 — £200,000), Honey Ryder's bathrobe as worn by Ursula Andress in Dr. No (£70,000-£140,000) and Johnny Depp's stunt costume from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (£50,000-£100,000).

Props include Harrison Ford's bull whip from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (£100,000-£200,000), Nightmare on Elm Street character Freddy Krueger's hero metal glove armature and hand-drawn schematic (£200,000-£400,000) and Tom Hanks' sneakers from Forrest Gump (£15,000-£30,000).

Other lots include Stanley Kubrick's hand-annotated shooting script for The Shining (£30,000-£60,000) and a coat worn by Marlon Brando in The Godfather (£25,000-£50,000).

Lane said the lots came from collectors, curators, archives, film studios and production companies.

“The demand is growing and we're seeing things travel all over the world ... and they're bought by passionate fans and lovers of the movies, collectors,” he said.

“But some of these items also end up in museums and studio archives as well.”

Reuters

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