BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Many of movies' most sought-after props are going up for auction, including the Rosebud sled from “Citizen Kane,” Macaulay Culkin's knit snow cap from “Home Alone” and a whip wielded by Harrison Ford during the Holy Grail trials of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”
The Summer Entertainment Auction being held July 15-19 by Heritage Auctions also includes sci-fi gems from the “Star Wars” galaxy, like a filming miniature of Luke Skywalker’s X-wing starfighter used in Industrial Light & Magic’s effects work for “The Empire Strikes Back,” and the lightsabers brandished by Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in “Revenge of the Sith.”
The Rosebud sled from the title character’s childhood sits at the center of Orson Welles’ 1941 “Citizen Kane." It's the last word tycoon Charles Foster Kane speaks before his death at the opening of the film that is regarded by many critics groups as the greatest ever made. Long thought lost, the sled is one of three of the prop known to have survived. It's owned by “Gremlins” director Joe Dante, who stumbled on it when he was filming on the former RKO Pictures lot in 1984. Dante wasn’t a collector, but knew the value of the sled and quietly preserved it for decades, putting it as an Easter egg into four of his own films.
Ford gave the Indiana Jones whip going up for auction to then-Prince Charles at the 1989 U.K. premiere of “The Last Crusade.” It was given as a gift to Princess Diana, who gave it to the current owner.
“These aren’t just props. They’re mythic objects,” Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s executive vice president, said in a statement. "They tell the story of Hollywood’s greatest moments, one piece at a time.”
Also going up for sale are a blue velvet suit that Mike Myers wore as Austin Powers in “Goldmember,” and a Citroën 2CV driven by Roger Moore as James Bond in “For Your Eyes Only,” one of the films Myers was parodying.
The auction also includes essential artifacts from the collection of legendary director Cecil B. DeMille, including a promotional pair of the titular tablets from DeMille's “The Ten Commandments,” which the director had cut from stone from Mount Sinai.
The Associated Press
