Christopher Lee's black cape from the 1958 film version of Dracula is expected to fetch up to £30,000. The woollen cape is one of nearly 250 lots of film and TV costumes from the archives of Angels The Costumiers.

Outfits from Blackadder, Doctor Who and the Harry Potter films are also up for sale at the auction, at Bonhams in London on June 16.

Lee's cape is being sold together with a letter signed by the actor confirming the authenticity of the item, as well as a still image of him wearing the cape as Dracula. However, fans with a smaller budget still have the chance to snap up a pair of waistcoats worn by Lee in 1976's Dracula Pere Et Fils and a 1971 production of Sherlock Holmes. They are expected to fetch the more meagre sum of £100-150.

Other items available at the auction include a full-length cloak worn by Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia, two monkey masks from The Mighty Boosh and Halle Berry's wetsuit from James Bond film Die Another Day.
 

Celebrated French mime Marcel Marceau left his mark on the world through silence, but his earthly belongings are generating a great deal of noise these days. On Wednesday, Parisian auction house Drouot began the second and final day of bidding on artwork, books, manuscripts and costumes Marceau left behind when he died at the age of 87 in Sept. 2007.

"We have 4,200 over here — certainly an original Marceau merits another bid!" prodded auctioneer Rodolphe Tessier as he stoked the bidding on Marceau's painting The Audience Observing from a reserve price of €800 ($1,080) toward its final sale at €11,000 ($14,850). "Estimating the value of such rare objects as these is impossible — it's the bidding that will determine the price!"

Critics say the bazaar-like atmosphere is hardly fitting. They note that the auction was court-ordered with the limited objective of reimbursing $405,000 in debt Marceau racked up at the end of his life to finance his shows. To ensure that sum was obtained, the auctioneers set astonishingly low opening prices so everything would find a taker.

"This is reducing the artistic legacy of a man to a fixed sum to be paid off," says Stephan Martell, who worked as Marceau's musical director. "For those of us who knew Marcel and how he lived his life and art as one, this random dispersal of his possessions is very painful."

To mitigate that anguish, Martell and long-time Marceau assistant Valérie Bochenek formed the association A Museum for Bip — a reference to the mime's famous sailor-suited character. Its initial aim was to raise $135,000 and buy as many of Marceau's most artistically significant relics as possible — including Bip's trademark costume (for which bids opened on Wednesday at a mere $1,350). Despite collecting over 3,000 signatures of support in less than two weeks, Martell acknowledges the group got significantly less money than hoped for. Still, during Tuesday's auctioning, Bochenek made 10 successful bids worth nearly $7,560.
 

Wax statues are a lot like a Barry Manilow concert.

There’s the cool aspect ... like seeing one of the all-time great singer-songwriters crooning through hits like “I Write the Songs,” “Mandy” and “Weekend in New England” with an energy that belies his 65 years and one or two cosmetic procedures. At the same time, there’s something also very icky about watching soccer moms catfight ladies in moo-moos while “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling.”  

And while Manilow fans will have to remain content waiting to see him on Oprah or at the Las Vegas Hilton, wax fans have the chance to take a little weirdness home with them.

The Hollywood Wax Museum is letting go of nearly 200 representations including Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch, Marilyn Monroe, cast of M.A.S.H., Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice and Batman, President Bill Clinton and even St. Louis Cardinals slugger/juicer Mark McGwire. The first auction in the museum’s 44-year history is set for May 1, 2009. A portion of the profits will support efforts to preserve Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

And while some of the statues are showing their age, what guy is going to let a little chipping on Catwoman’s gloves keep him from wanting to take a body suit wearing Michelle Pfeiffer home?


 

With loons like Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Madonna running around the English countryside, is it really a shock that the Brits passed on taking claim of another psycho?

Bonhams was unable to unload a 20-page score to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho after the minimum price was not met. The auction house had hoped to sell it for somewhere around $56,000. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann to accompany Hitchcock's 1960 thriller. The manuscript carries the notes to the slashing, shrieking violin sounds that play when a knife-wielding killer bursts in on actress Janet Leigh as she showers in the Bates Motel.

The score is being returned to Hermann’s third wife. Madonna? Sorry, she's staying.
 

The United States has something Egypt wants back and it’s not Brendan Fraser.

The Egyptian government claims we’re in possession of a 3,000-year-old wooden coffin illegally smuggled out of the country more than a century ago and wants to make sure it isn't auctioned like a pair of Chinese sculptures were in February. The nearly 5-foot-long coffin was removed from a tomb in Luxor around 1884. The ornamented coffin belonged to Pharaoh Ames of the 21st Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt from 1081-931 B.C.

The Associated Press is reporting that the coffin is currently in the hands of the customs authority in Miami, Fla., who confiscated it after it was shipped to the United States from Spain.

U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but sources close to the case believe government officials are tying to get Egypt, as part of the terms of return, to take possession of all DVD copies of box office bomb The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
 

Did you know that only Walt Disney licensed more items than Roy Rogers? True. The "prince of marketing" lent his name and image to nearly 2,100 products.

Now a rare guitar owned by singing cowboy and actor Roy Rogers is hitting the auction block next month, the first of its kind ever to be offered at auction, Christie's said on Wednesday. The C.F. Martin OM-45 Deluxe guitar is one of only 15 made by the Nazareth, Pennsylvania, company founded by a German immigrant in the 1830s. Only 14 were believed to have been manufactured in 1930 but recent research brought to light a 15th, owned by Rogers since 1933 and the very first one produced.

The auction house expects the OM (Orchestra Model) guitar, last played by Rogers and in its original, unrestored state, to sell for $150,000 to $250,000 when it is offered along with three more of Rogers's guitars on April 3.

The guitars are being sold by The Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo.

To see the Auction Network’s coverage of a Roy Rogers auction click here.
 

Meryl Streep broke a record this year when she was nominated for a 23rd Golden Globe Award. Her roles as Sister Aloysisu in the film adaption of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt and in Mamma Mia! pushed her past Jack Lemmon who received 22 nominations. One of the few actors to have won all four major screen acting awards (Oscars, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA), Streep donated the Angel Sanchez gown she wore to the 66th Golden Globe Awards to Clothes Off Our Backs. The dress, which started with an opening bid of $1,000, sold for $2,500 on Tuesday.

The second Battlestar Galactica live auction will be held May 8-10 at the Pasadena (Calif.) Convention Center and broadcast live on Auction Network (auctionnetwork.com). According to Propworx CEO Alec Peters, the last of the two auctions will be bigger and better than the last one held Jan. 17-18, 2009.. This time the event will be held in the new Convention Hall “B” … a state of the art convention facility with even more room than before.

Preview day will be May 7 from 10 a.m.-6p.m. (PST). Special guests will be announced shortly.

Highlights of the auction include:

* 975 lots of props, costumes and set pieces. The last auction showcased 800 lots. This time only 325 lots will be auctioned off each day, which is 75 less than was auctioned off each day in the first auction.

* The Hero Viper Mk II and the Blackbird will both be up for auction and on display.

* Wayne Rose, BSG assistant director and production manager, who is the “Unknown Soldier” in the famous Galactica photo, will be at the auction, signing copies of this piece of the Galactica legend.

Stay tuned for more info on the auction coming soon.

Thirty plus years after Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope premiered, the Force is still strong with those looking for memorabilia from George Lucas’ space opera franchise. While finding licensed collectibles isn’t a problem, finding actual prop pieces for sale is like getting close enough to Chewbacca to check for fleas.

That is unless you happen to be be looking in the right trash cans.

eBay seller glenda897 did just that.

According to the lot description, the seller’s family purchased three North Hollywood storage facilities that housed many of the set pieces for Star Wars. Once Lucas had finished building a private storage area at Skywalker Ranch (his $100 million workplace, complete with Lake Ewok, near Nicasio, Calif.), he had the props transferred except, crazy as it sounds, the Death Star model and a couple of Death Star surface pieces which were left behind. 

One of those sold today for $11,000. The piece that measures 23 5/8” x 25 5/8”, opened with a bid of $8,000 on Feb. 23. Three bidders were involved in the auction.

But what about the Death Star? Click here to read how one of the most iconic set pieces in science fiction ended up in Missouri.
 

Orson Welles may have directed one of the best movies of all time in Citizen Kane, but he was also a weird dude. So much so, that he made it a point to burn all the Rosebud sleds featured in the 1941 film. In 1982, when director Steven Spielberg paid $60,500 for a sled … at that time it was the highest price paid for a piece of film memorabilia … Welles was quick to defend that the sled must have been a promotional piece and not an actual prop.

What about bros before no-goes?

Having died in 1985, Welles won’t be able to cry foul over the sale of the trophy cup Welles' character, Charles Foster Kane, holds during the film.

The seller (mrs.miniver), who has the prop listed on eBay for a mere  $2,710,000, claims it’s the only onscreen object that Welles held in the movie. Having not watched the flick since Theory of Movie Making in college I’m not going to call that assertion false, but you mean to tell me that during the entire running time of the movie he never palmed anything else? Too bad I’ve already rented Pineapple Express this weekend or I’d get to the bottom of this.

The listing states that Christie’s authenticated the cup and did a full appraisal. And in case the Buy It Now Price cleans you out, free shipping is being offered.