The piano used in movie classic ‘Casablanca’ has been sold for over $600,000 at a Sotheby auction.
New York / NationalTurk – A piano used in the classic film “Casablanca” sold for just over $600,000 , falling far short of predictions that it could be sold for $1 million or even more.
Chepear than water !
The 58-key upright piano on which actor and singer Dooley Wilson performed “As Time Goes By,” the signature song of the 1942 best film’s star-crossed lovers played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, sold at Sotheby’s Auction House for only $602,500 including commission.
The auction house had assigned the iconic prop a pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million, given some astonishing prices attained by movie memorabilia in recent years.
In Casablanca , a Hollywood classic, the character Sam (Wilson) plays the signature song “As Time Goes By” on piano during flashback scenes set in Paris, as well as in Bogart’s club in Casablanca, where he and Bergman rekindle their romance.
Ingrid Bergman’s memorable lines included the imploring: “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’”
Japanese Collector to pay for Casablanca piano
Sotheby’s had sold the piano, which was the one used during the Paris flashback scenes, to a Japanese collector in 1988, who paid $154,000, one of the highest prices ever paid for a movie prop at the time.
The film, set in Morocco during World War Two, won three Academy Awards including best picture, best writing and best director for Michael Curtiz.
The Sotheby auction house did not identify the buyer, who could feed 10000 hunger deprived African children for this addition to his collection.
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