I was interviewed by The Telegraph back in July of last year, for a feature which was published in the UK newspaper today about collecting original movie props and costumes from Star Wars. In addition to myself, a who’s who of Star Wars collectors are featured in the piece, including Stephen Lane of Prop Store, legendary collector Gus Lopez, and Steve Sansweet of Rancho Obi-Wan, as well as Academy Award-winning set director Roger Christian. [Read more…]
TMZ and other media outlets are today reporting that the Michael Jackson Estate has filed a Federal lawsuit again Hollywood movie prop and memorabilia dealer Premiere Props; that the auction house was “duping potential buyers with a get-rich-quick scheme”. Per the article, Premiere Props offered concert photos for sale of the 1984 Victory Tour, and that Michael Jackson had originally hired the photographer and owned rights to the photos. According to TMZ, “[t]he Estate claims Premiere Props put the photos up for auction, and misled buyers into believing they would also own copyright on the pics — a huge selling point, because the buyer could make a fortune by reprinting and selling the pics”. [Read more…]
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. [Read more…]
The New York Daily News lead mainstream media reports yesterday about “disgraced sports memorabilia kingpin” Bill Mastro of Masto Auctions plead guilty to mail fraud and admitted to trimming/altering a high value trading card to increase it’s value. Mastro will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald A. Guzman, and faces up to five years in prison. [Read more…]
A movie prop vest that was part of an auction purchase of an assortment of items from a California storage locker, previously owned by someone who worked in the film industry. The items were purchased by owners of a thrift shop in New Jersey, and upon finding the vest and activating it with a remote found with the lot, called the police in a panic. Ultimately, law enforcement destroyed what was later believed to be a movie prop in the streets of New Jersey. [Read more…]
CBS News has broadcast a fascinating feature and interview with Ken Perenyi, a self-taught artist who fooled the art market and auction houses with forgeries of paintings. His method was to bring paintings he himself made into auction houses, and ask them what he had, saying now in retrospect, “risk is addictive“. [Read more…]
Well, not really, but according to multiple mainstream media reports, a crocodile spotted in River Thames is suspected to be a prop crocodile used in Live and Let Die (1973), the James Bond film starring Roger Moore. Per a story from The Telegraph, sources believe the crocodile was used in the scene where Moore runs across the backs of alligators. [Read more…]
KATU.com today reports that the movie prop guns that were on display at Movie Madness (a Winchester rifle used by John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and a shotgun used by William Holden in The Wild Bunch (1969)) and stolen last Summer were returned to the store by a third party this past weekend. In July 2012, the Hollywood memorabilia was stolen from the store and captured on video in the Portland, Oregon store. Law enforcement are still asking for the public’s help finding Erick Duanne Johnson, 47, based on the evidence in the video tape recording of the theft, and Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to Johnson’s arrest. [Read more…]