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A model of an X-wing fighter, which was used to film the climactic battle scene in the 1977 \u201cStar Wars,\u201d sold at auction on Sunday for $3,135,000, far exceeding the opening price of $400,000 and setting a record for a prop used onscreen in a \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie, according to Heritage Auctions.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a model spaceship found buried in some packing peanuts in a cardboard box in a garage.<\/p>\n
Friends of Greg Jein, a Hollywood visual effects artist, discovered the X-wing stashed in his garage<\/a> last year after he died at age 76.<\/p>\n It was one of hundreds of props, scripts, costumes and other pieces of Hollywood memorabilia that Mr. Jein had collected over the decades, and had left scattered throughout two houses, two garages and two storage units in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Heritage Auctions said the winning bidder did not want to be publicly identified. The buyer had been bidding on the floor of the auction house in Dallas, competing with another collector who was bidding over the phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A similar model X-wing sold last year for nearly $2.4 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than 500 other items from Mr. Jein\u2019s collection also sold at the auction, for a total of $13.6 million.<\/p>\n The two-day event was the second-highest-grossing Hollywood auction in history, after the 2011 sale of memorabilia from the actress Debbie Reynolds<\/a>, which grossed $22.8 million, Heritage Auctions said.<\/p>\n Her collection included Marilyn Monroe\u2019s billowing \u201csubway dress\u201d from the 1955 movie \u201cThe Seven Year Itch,\u201d which sold for $4.6 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Jein\u2019s collection reflected his passion for science fiction, comic books and fantasy.<\/p>\n It included a Stormtrooper costume<\/a> from the original \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie, which sold for $645,000, a spacesuit<\/a> from the 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey,\u201d which sold for $447,000, and a utility belt<\/a> from the 1960s \u201cBatman\u201d television series, starring Adam West, which sold for $36,250.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Jein also collected quirkier pieces, like a lace hairpiece<\/a> that had been worn by William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d television series. It sold for $13,750.<\/p>\n But the X-wing drew by far the most attention.<\/p>\n Heritage Auctions said the 22-inch prop<\/a> was used in scenes involving X-wings flown by three pilots in the Rebel Alliance\u2019s final assault on the Death Star<\/a>. The characters\u2019 call signs were Red Leader, Red Two and Luke Skywalker\u2019s own Red Five.<\/p>\n It had been built by Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects studio founded by George Lucas, with motorized wings, fiber-optic lights and other features for close-up shots.<\/p>\n But people in the visual effects industry had not seen the model in decades, according to Gene Kozicki, a visual-effects historian and archivist who worked with Mr. Jein on \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation\u201d and \u201cStar Trek: Deep Space Nine\u201d in the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like \u2018Holy cow, we found an X-wing, a real, honest-to-goodness X-wing,\u2019\u201d Mr. Kozicki said last month, recalling the moment he and several others pulled the X-wing out of a box in Mr. Jein\u2019s garage. \u201cWe were carrying on like kids on Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Jein\u2019s cousin, Jerry Chang, who attended the auction and spoke on a panel about his cousin\u2019s life and career, said he appreciated that Heritage Auctions \u201cmade it a point to honor Greg in everything they did, not just the items up for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Kozicki said the collection was a testament to Mr. Jein\u2019s love of collecting, which started with baseball cards when he was 5 years old.<\/p>\n As his collection spread to Hollywood memorabilia, he was drawn to props and costumes that were made by artisans and craftspeople before the advent of digital special effects, Mr. Kozicki said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 1980, Mr. Jein was nominated for another Academy Award<\/a> in visual effects for his work on Mr. Spielberg\u2019s \u201c1941,\u201d which was filmed with model tanks, buildings<\/a> and a runaway Ferris wheel.<\/p>\n \u201cGreg famously said \u2018I have a hard time throwing anything away,\u2019 and I think in a way he kept the collection going so the recognition of those craftspeople wouldn\u2019t be discarded like a prop,\u201d Mr. Kozicki said in an email on Monday. \u201cI can only hope that the new owners keep that spirit going.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n