The costume of Cowardly Lion from classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has sold for more than $3 million at an auction in New York.
The famous outfit went for $3.07 million at a Bonham’s auction of Hollywood memorabilia on November 24.
It had been authenticated as the one Bert Lahr wore in more than a dozen scenes in the film. Its face is a sculpted likeness of the late actor.
The outfit was made out of real lion hide.
Other items that went under the hammer included a piano from 1942 film Casablanca, which sold for $2.9 million.
The instrument was sold along with more than 30 items from the World War II drama.
The piano, one of two used in the film, had been owned by Los Angeles dentist Gary Milan.
Dr. Gary Milan said the piano came with chewing gum under the keyboard, but that the owner of the fingerprint embedded in it was unknown.
In one famous scene, Humphrey Bogart uses the piano as a hiding place for illegal transit papers.
The “letters of transit” were also sold at auction, fetching more than $100,000.
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Judy Garland’s dress worn in the Wizard of Oz has sold for $480,000 at auction in Beverly Hills.
The price for the blue and white gingham pinafore dress was in line with expectations, Julien’s Auctions said.
A similar dress worn during tests for the classic 1939 film fetched $910,000 in 2011, Reuters reports.
Auctioneer Darren Julien said the difference in price was due to the fact that fewer versions of the test dress were made.
Neither dresses fetched anywhere near the $4.6 million spent last year on Marilyn Monroe’s white “subway dress” from the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, and the $3.7 million taken for Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from My Fair Lady.
The Wizard of Oz dress was made by the famous MGM costume designer Adrian Greenberg, who was commonly known simply as Adrian.
The buyer has not been identified.
Judy Garland’s dress worn in the Wizard of Oz has sold for $480,000 at auction in Beverly Hills
However, Judy Garland’s dress was not the only highlight of the two-day Hollywood Icons auction.
A green floral dress worn by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music fetched $38,400; a racing jacket belonging to Steve McQueen sold for $50,000 and a purple wool skirt worn by Marilyn Monroe during the making of the 1954 film River of No Return went for the same amount.
Meanwhile, $1,375 was paid each for a slice of wedding cake from both Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding and the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
