Steve McQueen Collection Claims Top-Lot Honors in $1-Million Entertainment Auction at Heritage
DALLAS, Texas (March 21, 2017) - The personally-owned collection of movie star Steve McQueen brought $280,618 across 30 lots in Heritage Auctions’ spring Entertainment & Music Memorabilia auction March 18 in Dallas. The $1 million sale offered private collections by Bruce Willis and Farah Fawcett, as well as a stellar collection of never-before-seen concert posters.
“Strong bidding across the spectrum drove this auction past expectations,” said Margaret Barrett, Director of Entertainment Memorabilia at Heritage Auctions.
The auction offered 18 annotated shooting scripts from some of McQueen’s greatest movies. His leather-bound, annotated script for the 1968 film Bullitt and his script for Le Mans each sold for $55,000. The script for the 1963 classic The Great Escape - which detailed McQueen’s own requests for the classic motorcycle jump scene - sold for $50,000.
The auction offered a special selection of personal rarities from Marilyn Monroe, including an original marker from Marilyn Monroe’s grave, which sold for $35,000; a circa 1953 Marilyn Monroe signed black and white photograph, which ended at $13,750; and a circa 1954 dollar bill autographed by both Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, which brought $5,750.
A one-owner collection of rarely-seen music concert posters sold for a combined $255,843 led by a poster for a 1964 performance by Roy Orbison. The window card, showing a classic image of Orbison wearing horn-rimmed glasses, saw interest from five bidders who pushed the sale price to $16,250. A Batman/Young Rascals concert poster from 1966 sold for $13,750 and a colorful, 1956 poster advertising performances by Little Richard, Big Joe Turner and Etta James closed at $12,500.
Two rare pieces of memorabilia relating to Otis Redding surpassed estimates as a RIAA Gold Record sales award for his smash hit (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay sold for $12,500 and a scarce, 1965 record promotional poster sold for $11,250.
Additional highlights include, but are not limited to:
The mauve silk chiffon dress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the film Cleopatra sold for $10,000.
Hollywood memorabilia personally-consigned by stage and screen actor Bruce Willis featured his French movie poster from Forbidden Planet, which sold for $7,500, and his Hollywood Walk of Fame Award from 2006, sold for $5,000.
Memorabilia from The Beatles saw four signatures from a 1963 autograph album sell for $10,625 and a signed copy of the group’s LP Help! saw $7,500.
Items from the collection of David Gest Memorabilia Archive includes a Michael Jackson signed color photograph from 1998 and busts of Louis Armstrong and W.C. Handy, which both sold for $4,750.
