That's still not a record for movie memorabilia
The Cowardly Lion costume from the Wizard of Oz and the Casablanca piano, two of the most iconic pieces of movie memorabilia, sold at Bonham's Turner Classic Movies auction.
The Cowardly Lion costume, owned by Los Angeles TV museum founder James Comisar, fetched $3,077,000, which includes a buyer's premium of $477,000. The costume had been left in an old MGM building before it was rescued by a junk dealer cleaning out the abandoned building.Both pieces went for more than $3 million (with buyer's premium). While neither result is a record, the sale price was at the upper end of presale estimates.
Comisar bought the costume, which is made up of real lion's fur, and had it preserved by professional museum curators. Several costumes were made for the film. Comisar says an extensive analysis of the unique fur swirls prove this one was screen-used in key scenes featuring the Lion (played by Bert Lahr).
The piano, which an anonymous Los Angeles-area collector owned for decades, fetched $3,413,000,