Tony Curtis art collection to go under hammer
LOS ANGELES:An extensive art collection and other memorabilia that once belonged to late Hollywood actor Tony Curtis are to be sold at auction next month in Beverly Hills, sale organizers said Tuesday.
The actor immortalized in “Some Like It Hot,” and who died last year, was also an accomplished flautist and a painter whose work resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Among the works to go under the hammer are a “Some Like It Hot” themed painting by Andy Warhol, three drawings by Balthus, and ceramics and prints by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Marc Chagall, Julien's Auctions said.
Some of Curtis's own works – “paintings, drawings, prints, ceramic vases and a tapestry” – will also be up for sale, the auction house said in a statement.
Souvenirs and memorabilia from the actor's long career are part of the sale, including a yachtsman's jacket he wore in the famed shipboard kissing scene with Marilyn Monroe in “Some Like it Hot,” valued at $10,000 to $15,000.
The sale will take place on September 17 in Beverly Hills, the auction house said. Items will be on display September 6-16.
Curtis – who was known almost as well for his off-camera dalliances, with Monroe and many others, as for his acting skills – died of a heart attack in September 2010 at his home outside Las Vegas. He was 85.