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Robby the Robot Makes Record $5.3m at Bonhams

Robby the Robot Makes Record $5.3m at Bonhams
Robby the Robot Makes Record $5.3m at Bonhams

Robby the Robot, the two-meter tall robot from the science fiction classic ‘Forbidden Planet’ (1956), sold at Bonhams New York for a world record price of $5,375,000.

The salesroom at Bonhams Madison Avenue was packed, but the bidding activity was all on the phones. A four-way battle ensued, with the bids at one point leaping from $3.6 million to $4 million, before Robby - and his Jeep - finally sold for $5,375,000, Art Daily reported.

The stellar result means that Robby has knocked the previous world record holder - the Maltese Falcon - off its perch. In 2013, Bonhams Entertainment Memorabilia Department made history in New York, selling the Maltese Falcon statuette from the cinema noir classic of the same name for $4 million, then a record price for a movie prop at auction (non-automotive). The 30-centimeters-tall Falcon was the star of the Bonhams inaugural film history sale with partner Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Robby the Robot has also blown away the price for the white dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in ‘The Seven-Year Itch’, which made $4.6 million in 2011, and the original 1966 Batmobile (car driven by the superhero Batman), that sold for $4.6 million in 2013.

With this result, Robby the Robot now becomes the most valuable movie prop ever sold at auction.

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