In 2000 a French poster for Casablanca
sold for $86,608 in a Hollywood movie poster auction at Christie's South Kensington, in
London. Just how much is that? More than any Casablanca poster had
ever sold for, more than any poster had brought at auction — ever! —
in Europe, and far more than Christie's South Kensington estimate of
$16,000 to $24,000.
All we can say is, why?
"It just so happened that in that particular sale, two people
wanted it very badly," said Sarah Hodgson, of Christie's South
Kensington. "Both are very serious movie poster collectors and had a
lot of Casablanca posters, but neither of them had this one."
The buyer was Dr. Mark Swift, a surgeon. According to London's Daily
Telegraph, he "left his operating theatre" to buy the poster
by telephone. Hodgson confirms that the story is true. Was he there,
cradling the phone with blood-stained latex gloves? "I have no idea,
but I don't want to think about it," she said.
Speaking of blood-stained, the auction of movie posters featured a
bunch of Clint Eastwood posters. A three-poster set advertising the 1966
Italian release of Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly) fetched $5,104. A poster for the 1973 Magnum
Force fetched $3,679, and one for A
Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
brought $1,650.
Why would the later Magnum
Force fetch more than A
Fistful Of Dollars? As a rule, size does count, and the Magnum
Force poster was 60 x 40 inches versus Fistful's 41 x 27 inches. Plus,
there's the potential added value of the poster's image — a magnum held upright, in your face.
The Casablanca
price was a surprise. Movie posters vary from
country to country, both in the text and in the images. American posters
for American movies tend to bring more than European posters for American
movies. But in this case, it was a competition between two collecting
titans over a rarity that pushed the price beyond all reason.
But then, collecting isn't about reason. People may think they own
their stuff, but for devoted collectors, as novelist John Fowles once
wrote, "The object possesses the possessor."
 
(Australia -
left)
(USA - right)
|
FILM POSTER SELLS FOR FAR MORE THAN A HILL OF BEANS
Casablanca: Script and Legend/the 50th Anniversary Edition