Marlon Brando▓s effects sale totalled $2.4 million

Date: 01.07.2005 Source: news agency "Russian Antique"

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Photo of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone and his script from ╚The Godfather╩ at Christies New York [zoom (27k)]

Yesterday▓s Christie▓s Marlon Brando personal effects sale totaled 2.4 million dollars, more than twice the initial estimate. The property put up on sale included nearly 330 lots, most of them from the Los Angeles home where the increasingly reclusive actor lived from 1960 until his death in July 2004.

The highlight of the auction was a script of ╚The Godfather╩ annotated by Marlon Brando. Brando received his second best actor Oscar for his portrayal of mafia kingpin Don Corleone in the 1972 classic movie. The lot was bought for more than 20 times its high estimate of $15,000, setting a new record price for a script with $312,800. The previous record belonged to Clark Gable's ╚Gone With The Wind╩ script, sold for $244,000 in 1996.

A handwritten letter from the creator of ╚The Godfather╩, Mario Puzo, urging Brando to take the role of Don Corleone, made $132,000, way above the Christie's high estimate of $1,200. ╚Dear Mr. Brando, I wrote a book called ╚The Godfather╩, which has had some success and I think you're the only actor who can play the part╩, the signed letter began. ╚I know this was presumptuous of me but the best I can do by the book is try. I really think you'd be tremendous╩, Puzo wrote.

Other lots included Brando's correspondence with XX century icons like Marilyn Monroe, Jack Kerouac and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, driving licenses, credit cards and even a table football set, which was sold for $5,400. The King letter brought $13,200.

Despite the obvious success of the auction, Brando's son Christian was very displeased with the way Brando's estate has handled the sale. Christian believes that many of the lots in the auction were items that the actor would never have wanted sold. Christie▓s returned him a 14-carat gold Saint Christopher's medallion that Christian's mother, Anna Kashfi, had given her son. But other members of the Brando clan were happy with the success of the auction