'Maltese Falcon' statue goes for $4M at auction

'Maltese Falcon' statue: The final price on the prop was $4,085,000, according to the auction house.

|
Bonhams/Reuters
The iconic lead statuette of the Maltese Falcon from the 1941 film of the same name is pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of Bonhams. The statuette sold at auction in New York Nov. 25, for $4,085,000.

A statuette of a bird featured in the classic 1941 detective thriller "The Maltese Falcon" sold for more than $4 million at auction Monday.

The final price on the prop was $4,085,000, according to Bonhams auction house.

The black figurine is one of two known statuettes made for the film but the only one confirmed by Warner Bros. archives as having appeared in it, Bonhams said.

The winning bid came over the phone.

The statuette has a Warner Bros. inventory number etched into the base and bears the name of the movie, which starred Humphrey Bogart as private detective Sam Spade.

It was offered in a sale of other classic movie memorabilia.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Maltese Falcon' statue goes for $4M at auction
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1126/Maltese-Falcon-statue-goes-for-4M-at-auction
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe