The artefacts in the annual
Prop Store Entertainment Memorabilia Live
Auction have been hunted down by Prop Store boss
Stephen Lane through his network of filmmakers,
cast and crew members, production companies and
collectors.
"I started Prop Store out of my passion for
collecting and so it's all about the hunt," Lane
told Reuters in his company's warehouses in
Rickmansworth, near London.
"A lot of these artefacts are just thrown away
at the end of production or certainly used to
be. They were just disposed of or sold off. And
that meant they just went to the four winds,"
Lane said.
Some of the tems on this year's list turned up
unexpectedly.
Lane, a passionate "Star Wars" fan, was visiting
a crew member who had laid out his treasure
trove of props from the sci-fi series in his
house. He spotted another piece of movie magic -
the crystal ball that David Bowie uses in
"Labyrinth".
"We'd spent like three hours up in one room
looking at all the 'Star Wars' and downstairs,
and it was a piece he just didn't think anybody
was going to be interested in, and I was like
'that's the cherry right there'."
"That's the real excitement of what I do," Lane
said of the crystal ball, which is estimated to
sell for £10,000 - £15,000.
In total more than 900 items from over 350 films
and television shows will be auctioned in the
two-day online sale.
Highlights include Obi-Wan Kenobi's Hero
Lightsaber from "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith",
estimated at £80,000 - £120,000, Jack
Nicholson's Joker's Fedora from the 1989 movie
"Batman", estimated at £20,000 - £30,000, and
James Bond's MI6 Training Suit from "Skyfall",
estimated at £15,000.
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Also on the auction block are
the red leather jacket worn by Brad Pitt in the
1999 "Fight Club", estimated at £20,000 -
£30,000, Captain Jack Sparrow's hat from
"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides",
estimated at £10,000 - £15,000 and the helmet
worn by Tom Hanks in "Saving Private Ryan",
signed by the actor, his co-stars and the
director Steven Spielberg, estimated at £10,000
- £15,000. Cruise's Pete
"Maverick" Mitchell "Top Gun" bomber jacket is
estimated at £12,000-£16,000 and the "Pretty
Woman" boots at £10,000 - £15,000.
Among the top valued lots is also the complete
costume for Keanu Reeves' character Neo from the
2003 film "The Matrix Reloaded", which is
estimated at £40,000 - £60,000.
The snakeskin suit worn by Bill Nighy in "Love
Actually" is estimated to sell for a more modest
£400.
The client viewings and sale would normally take
place in central London but the coronavirus
pandemic means most of the action this year
happens online or in the Prop Store warehouses.
The pandemic has had an unexpected effect on
interest in movie memorabilia, Lane said.
"The amount of views on our auctions have been
absolutely through the roof this year," he said.
"What we put that down to is the fact that
people just really aren't entertaining. They're
not travelling, they're not moving around," he
said.
(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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