This is an article from 2005, but interesting none the less. The original article can still be found at the New York Times website.
There was a related topic on the Movie Prop Forum at the time, “Tim Burton’s Prop Collection“.
It is an interesting example of an event in which original props/artifacts are released into the open marketplace and how that news travels and things play out.
Rummaging for a Piece of Tim Burton
By SHARON WAXMANPublished: March 12, 2005
Marissa Roth for The New York Time
AZUSA, Calif., March 11 – The notice read: “Tim Burton’s garage sale.”
Who wouldn’t want a peek? You never know what you are going to find at a garage sale, especially a Hollywood sale, especially one at which the items belonged to the gothic talent behind “Edward Scissorhands,” “Mars Attacks!” and “Sleepy Hollow.”
The dozens of regular folks who lined up outside a lonely storage unit in this town east of Pasadena on Friday were hoping for a bit of movie history, and (no one would deny it) a glimpse inside Mr. Burton’s private life with his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Marie.
That’s because it was Ms. Marie who was divesting herself of the accouterments of her 10-year relationship with Mr. Burton – “movie memorabilia, props from movie sets,” read the advertisement on the Craig’s List Web site – along with a few other knickknacks like, say, a rice cooker and a whole bunch of Manolo Blahniks.
“They have exquisite taste,” gushed Mathu VonKasten, 40, a self-described “style architect” who shapes trends for magazines and movies, as he left the building. He wore a checkered cap, a red hammer-and-sickle pin on his lapel (hip, not political) and two black spiral earrings. “We love Tim Burton and that ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ sort of thing, but that’s not what we’re here for,” he explained.
Mr. VonKasten was here for the furniture, and bought a Noguchi glass coffee table for the bargain price of $495. “It looked picked over, but they had exquisite Egyptian cotton sheets and cashmere tops – something you can throw on to go to the grocery store,” he added.
Garage sales are a regular ritual of Los Angeles life, and show business garage sales are particularly sought after, with their rags-to-riches-to-rags subtext. Also because they are so rare; movie stars are not generally in the habit of dragging their things out onto the front lawn for a public looky-look.
But in this case the event fell into the category of psychic divestment, explained Ms. Marie’s lawyer, Lara P. Ott, who was supervising the sale. “This is very painful for her,” Ms. Ott said, referring to Ms. Marie, a model who memorably played the Martian Girl in Mr. Burton’s “Mars Attacks!” and Ichabod Crane’s mother in “Sleepy Hollow.” The couple broke up in 2001.
“She is trying to separate herself from a very traumatic event in her life, the end of her relationship with Tim,” Ms. Ott added. “Her purpose is to move forward, and leave the past behind her.”
But by 9 a.m. on Friday, not too much was left of her past with Mr. Burton, he of the spooky sets and dark palette, who first came to prominence with the ghoulish comedy hit “Beetlejuice.” It turned out that Ms. Marie had unloaded most of the movie props and furniture to a private bidder the night before, who had carted everything away in trucks. The main movie item left was a velvet chaise lounge from the 1994 movie “Ed Wood,” priced at $20,000.
Mr. Burton, in London finishing his latest film, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” with his pet actor, Johnny Depp, was less than thrilled that his ex-girlfriend was cleaning house. “He’s very upset that items that perhaps at one time belonged to him are being sold in a garage sale, and he is looking into his legal options,” said Mr. Burton’s spokeswoman, Leslee Dart.
Many of the bargain seekers and Burton fans were equally unamused, but for a different reason. “It’s basically a garage sale – junk,” said Connie May, who had taken the day off from her job at a construction company to come to the sale with a friend. She bought a coffee mug with a Chihuahua on it for $1 as consolation. “We thought it would be props, memorabilia, scripts – anything,” she said.
“To call it a Tim Burton sale was a stretch, I guarantee you,” said Long Gone John, a music producer with lots of silver jewelry, including a skull-bone ring. “I was very disappointed.”
“It’s unacceptable,” said Suzanne Stanford, a furniture collector who had come at 8:15 a.m. to be one of the first inside when the doors opened. “You get here and everything’s gone.”
Still, others managed to mine a few gems from the bric-a-brac, including some loose plastic eyeballs ($1), a plastic Ultraman monster figure ($1) and a “Mars Attacks!” wall sconce ($25). Michael Murphy, a Burton fan, got some free “Mars Attacks!” goo after buying a ceramic tile, painted by Mr. Burton, of a pastel-colored ghoul, for $375.
Richard Ruiz, a collector, bought two “Planet of the Apes” posters for $4 each. How much would they cost on eBay? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m going to go home and put them up and see what they get.”
For some, it was enough to be able to touch a little bit of fame, to imagine the life of the artist and his muse, surrounded by Anna Sui dresses, overstuffed pillows and bright pink glitter fabric. Not, however, for Lenora Claire. Ms. Claire, a 24-year-old circus performer with flaming red hair and black, glittering four-inch platform boots, had something very specific in mind.
“I love ray guns,” she said as she stood in line. “I collect ray guns. I figured this would be the place to find one.”
Jason De Bord