Press release from Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers:

$1.56 MILLION MOVIE POSTERS AUCTION SETS WORLD’S RECORD

(Dallas, Texas) — Bidders paid a world’s record $1.56 million for 1,006 vintage movie posters in a public sale conducted by Heritage Movie Poster Auctions, a division of Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers of Dallas, Texas (www.HeritageGalleries.com). It is the fifth world’s record collectibles sale set by the firm in recent years.

“This was the world’s most valuable movie posters auction. Prices realized were strong across all categories with near-feverish interest in many items in Humphrey Bogart material,” said Grey Smith, Director of Heritage Movie Poster Auctions. “Interest in Western movie posters is on the increase, and silent film material continues to gain momentum.”

The only known surviving one-sheet “D Style” poster for the 1927 film, “Wings,” the first movie to win an Academy Award for best picture, had a pre-sale estimate of $30,000 but sold for $86,250. The Paramount Pictures poster features illustrations of Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers.

A United Artists one-sheet poster for the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks film, “The Thief of Bagdad,” sold for $54,625 against a pre-sale estimate of $30,000.

A poster with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid for the 1942 Warner Brothers Oscar-winning classic, “Casablanca,” was purchased for $20,700.

An Italian language poster for the 1939 MGM film, “The Wizard of Oz” (“il Mago di Oz”), depicting Judy Garland and Frank Morgan brought $17,250.

A poster for the 1940 RKO animated Walt Disney feature, “Pinocchio,” was sold for $11,500, and a poster for the 1951 20th Century Fox science fiction film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” was purchased for $10,925.

All prices quoted include the 15 percent buyer’s premium paid by all winning bidders in the auction conducted in Dallas and online, November 11 and 12, 2005. The previous record high for a vintage movie poster auction was $1.46 million, set in 1996 by Butterfield & Butterfield.

In recent years, Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers has established records for:

– The world’s most valuable one-owner, single session rare coin auction, $19.2 million (and the first time three coins sold for more than $1 million in a single auction), November 2, 2005;

– The world’s most valuable rare coin auction, $61.1 million, January 12 – 15, 2005;

– World’s most valuable paper money auction, $12 million, February 18 and 19, 2005;

– Sale of the world’s most valuable toy soldier, $200,000 for the first G.I. Joe action figure, August 7, 2003;

– And world’s largest comic book and comic art auction, $5.2 million, that included items from the collection of actor Nicholas Case, October 12, 2002.

For additional information, contact Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers, 3500 Maple Ave., 17th Floor, Dallas, Texas 75219. Phone: (800) 872-6467. Online: www.HeritageGalleries.com.