The controversial wooden door prop in the Titanic movie, used to save Rose but not big enough for Jack, has fetched a staggering £500k at a recent auction
A controversial movie prop used in the Titanic movie’s final scene has sold for a staggering £567,561 ($718,750) at auction. The balsa wood prop, modelled on the door frame above the entrance to the doomed ship’s first class lounge, has been the subject of much debate since the release of the movie in 1997.
With the lovers clinging to it while water raged around them, they soon realise there is only enough space for one of them, with the prop subsequently keeping Rose, played by Kate Winslet, alive, with her lover Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, sacrificing his life for her.
But after a two-and-a-half-decades-long debate, and since fetching such a hefty sum at this week’s auction, it seems one lucky bidder will be able to find out for themselves. The auction, which took place across five days, from Wednesday morning until Sunday night, at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas (the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer), saw a whole host of movie treasures from Planet Hollywood ‘shatter expectations,’ with more than 5,500 bidders from around the world.
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Items brought in more than £12million ($15million) for the almost 1,600-lot, with the 1912 shipwreck prop, measuring eight feet long and nearly three and a half feet wide, a key item at the event. The auctioneer opened the bidding at £72,264 ($90,000) saying: “Big item, the biggest scene really, the climactic scene if you will. This is the goodbye.”
In just over five minutes, the price increased dramatically, with a winning in-person bid of £567,561 ($718,750). Other items from the auction’s treasure trove included Indiana Jones’s bullwhip from The Temple of Doom, which sold for £414,717 ($525,000), Jack Nicholson’s axe from The Shining, which fetched £98,743 ($125,000) and the can of shaving cream used to smuggle dinosaur embryos out of Jurassic Park, which sold for £197,451 ($250,000).
