A reader identifying himself as MovieMania has responded to the article in regards to the “Fox letter” included with an Aliens piece at auction, as discussed in this article, Questionable “Letter from 20th Century Fox”.
Again, because readers wouldn’t know there was such a substantive response, I’ve reposted it here so that readers will have an opportunity to learn of the views and information shared by this dealer.
# andrew2548 Says:
June 6th, 2007 at 6:33 am eWe have withdrawn this letter from auction because of it’s confusion exhibitied from collectors, especially in relation to the Australian origin. We have however, received similar notification from another Fox official that the information provided by Elstree film studios is valid. We therefore have no doubts over it’s provenance. The facehugger came from the personal collection of a film crew member who had an exclusive license to store and archive film props from 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm in the UK. The facehugger came from that collection. It was assessed and researched by Christies and 2 other major auction houses specialising in film and entertainment and found with an original stasis tube. The hugger was not sold because it’s tail was destroyed during or after production.
We have a letter from the archivist – and also have textual evidence from Pinewood where the majority of Alien and Aliens was produced – clarifying the huggers transfer of ownership to Elstree in the mid 90s.
Postal evidence, such as recorded delivery receipts will show that we sent letters to three seperate Fox studios (including Fox Australia) during our research – evidently, we have nothing to hide.
As the owner of MovieMania, I will inform collectors and enthusiasts of the following:
Ensure that you divert your time, energy and concern to those vendors who rely on authenticity they have attested themselves. For example, a COA which has been signed by someone who had no involvement with the production of the film. I will NOT allow collectors and enthusiats to critisise the work of MovieMania, who, as a specialist vendor, does everything within it’s power to ensure that the sale of film props accompanies hard evidence with every item sold… ie, evidence from a film studio, member of the procution team or special effects artist. If there is something on our website which fails to satisfy a request for ‘hard evidence’ please feel free to contact us as we would really be very intrigued.
Kind Regards,
MovieMania
MovieMania, thank you for taking the time to read the article about the letter and remark here.
Your comment about a COA being signed by “someone who had no involvement with the production of the film” is an interesting one, in that, it seems exactly that is the norm in the hobby. I wrote an article that very much touched on some of the issues related to COAs – Challenging the Hobby: The COA & The Guarantee – and was unfamiliar with your company at the time of the article. I’d be interested in your perspective on some of the general issues and questions raised therein, should you have the time and inclination.
Regarding your comment about not allowing “collectors and enthusiats to critisis the work of MovieMania”, I would have to disagree. My view is that prop dealers – their offerings, authenticity of pieces, way of doing business, etc. – are very much topics open to scrutiny, debate, and opinion. Speaking as a collector, there is much in the hobby to be cautious of, and us collectors really must rely on one another to share information, ideas, opinions, and to pool together in order to help one another be careful, discerning collectors.
If you put a great deal of work and research into authenticating your pieces, I would think and hope that you would welcome scrutiny, in that your business product and practices should therefore stand for themselves. That’s how, in my opinion, good reputations are forged.
Maybe you might reconsider your position, and understand the spirit with which I’ve shared my opinion.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective, and the update on the Fox letter.
Please feel free to comment below, which is also open for other readers to perhaps post additional questions or comments.
Jason De Bord