The Daily Mail must be an easy get for a puff piece on movie prop memorabilia, going by their latest article on the “prototype” stormtrooper helmet being put up for auction (again) by Nate D Sanders this month. It reads as though it was repurposed from the auction house material, without the benefit of any third party analysis or questions about the provenance of the item. A similar helmet was pulled from auction by Christie’s last month, and their have been questions raised about the background of these “prototype” stormtrooper helmets attributed to Andrew Ainsworth’s work on Star Wars: A New Hope going back for years now.
You can check out the Daily Mail article here:
Rather that restating what has already been covered to significant extent in past articles, I will link to the one from last month:
What appears to be this same piece failed to meet it’s opening bid of $7,500 when put up for auction in March (March 2014 Auction Lot #266), and was also listed for sale on eBay with a $15,000 “Buy It Now” price, which was not realized (see eBay Item #181371041731).
According to the article headlines, “Experts say it could fetch as much as $20,000 when it’s auctioned in LA“; the only “expert” quoted is Sam Heller from Nate D. Sanders, who says in the article, “Our estimate is very conservative – it could easily go for $20,000 or more“.
Jason DeBord