Writer Gary Baum has written an interesting primer on the art market for original production material from film and television for Hollywood Reporter, which was published today. It takes a look at the market from several viewpoints – the increasing market and values, theft and fraud, some of the motivations behind collecting – and he interviewed principals in the industry such as Max Anderson of the Stan Lee Museum, Steve Sansweet of Rancho Obi-Wan, Darren Julien of Julien’s Auctions, James Comisar of the Comisar Collection, Joe Maddalena of Profiles in History, collector David Mandel, Jeff Pirtle of NBCUniversal, Brandon Alinger of Prop Store, Catherin Williamson of Bonhams, Laura Woolley of The Collector’s Lab, Jacob McMurray of Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, Margaret Barrett of Heritage Auctions as well as law enforcement, and it also gives some history of the hobby (and business) of buying and selling high end memorabilia. [Read more…]
Temporary Restraining Order Stops Heritage Auctions’ Sale of Whitney Houston’s Emmy Award
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson issued a temporary restraining ordering blocking Heritage Auctions from selling Whitney Houston’s 1986 Emmy Award for “Saving All My Love for You” at auction. Their “Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature Auction – Beverly Hills” took place on June 24th and 25th. In spite of the piece being pulled from auction and returned to the Houston family, the remaining lots of her personal property and memorabilia brought in approximately half a million dollars. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences had filed a lawsuit against Heritage Auctions to stop the sale of the Statue, which they contend is a loan to recipients and their families, not a gift that can be offered for sale to the highest bidder. [Read more…]
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Attempts To Stop Sale of Whitney Houston’s Emmy Award by Heritage Auctions
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has filed a lawsuit against Heritage Auctions as well as a consignor in their current auction, Whitney Houston’s estate, in an effort to block the sale of her 1986 Emmy Award for “Saving All My Love for You”, which she performed at the Grammy’s. Heritage is fighting the efforts to pull the award from their auction. [Read more…]
The 9th Annual Original Prop Blog “Year in Review” for 2015: News, Developments, and Trends in Collecting Original TV & Movie Props, Costumes and Pop Culture Memorabilia
As per tradition, (see 2007 Year in Review, 2008 Year in Review, 2009 Year in Review, 2010 Year in Review, 2011 Year in Review, 2012 Year in Review, 2013 Year in Review, 2014 Year in Review), what follows is an editorial featuring my personal observations and opinions with regards to the business of buying, collecting, selling, and preserving original pop culture artifacts. A look back at interesting trends, developments, and news stories from 2015. As is always the case, this is a completely subjective exercise, and merely touches on the developments and events that relate to the hobby. [Read more…]
Heritage Auction Galleries “Stallone: The Auction” Catalog Online, Event To Be Held December 18-20
Heritage Auction Galleries has published on their latest online catalog and listings for their upcoming event, “Stallone: The Auction”, to be held December 18th – 20th at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The sale features over 1,400 lots of props, costumes, and other assets personally owned by the Hollywood legend, Sylvester Stallone. Definitely one of the most exciting auctions of the year. [Read more…]
Heritage Auctions Announces Sylvester Stallone Sale; Promotes With Bizarre, Low Budget Video?
Yesterday, Heritage Auctions announced their October sale event, “Stallone – The Collection”, which garnered a lot of mainstream media coverage and interest. Strangely, the main marketing piece published was a bizarre, low budget (no budget?) video, which entailed not much more than following Sylvester Stallone around with a video camera (or maybe mobile phone shooting video?) as he seemingly pulls items out of wooden crates at random. Accompanied by bad elevator music, there is no interview or narration or questions or presentation by anyone from Heritage, as they stand around watching him indiscriminately look for pieces to hold up for the camera and come up with anecdotes to fill the silence amid the unidentified, bored-looking spectators surrounding him. I guess some might categorize it as “better than nothing”, but it certainly doesn’t do justice to one of the biggest box office icons of all-time. [Read more…]