Richard Gere to sell guitar collection at auction (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Richard Gere may be best known for his acting career but he is also an accomplished musician who has amassed an extensive guitar collection that will be sold at auction in October, Christie's said on Wednesday.

The star of "Pretty Woman," "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Chicago," has spent the last 20 years accumulating the collection.

It includes brands such as C.F. Martin, Gibson and Fender and instruments once owned by blues guitarist Albert King, Jamaican reggae musician Peter Tosh and acclaimed American guitar maker James D'Aquisto.

"What transpired over a lifetime is an almost encyclopedic representation of American guitar making," said Kerry Keane, the head of Christie's musical instruments department.

"This is an exciting opportunity for collectors and fans alike to take advantage of Mr. Gere's unrecognized talent for creating a cohesive collection."

The auction in New York on October 11 will contain 110 lots worth approximately $1 million. A 1958 solid-body Gibson Flying V electric guitar once owned by King is expected to sell for up to $90,000.

Another top item is a 1931 C.F. Martin D-28, one of the most coveted Martin designs, which has an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000.

Gere's collection resulted from a lifelong love of music that began with the trumpet before he taught himself the guitar and piano.

"They have been my true friends through the best and worst of times. I never planned to put together a collection. I just bought ones that I liked, the ones that sounded good and played well," Gere said in a statement.

"Some are very special. Although it's more than a little painful to let them go, each one has been played, loved and appreciated - and will be again."

Gere said proceeds of the auction will go to support humanitarian causes around the world.

(Writing by Paula Rogo; edited by Patricia Reaney)

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NYC Elaine's restaurant memorabilia up for auction (AP)

NEW YORK – Memorabilia from the famed New York City restaurant Elaine's is going up for auction next month.

The watering hole on Manhattan's Upper East Side was patronized by writers and celebrities including Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Jackie Onassis. It shut its doors in May following restaurateur Elaine Kaufman's death last year.

An eclectic collection of art, barware and other items will be sold at the Doyle New York auction house Sept. 20.

Among the items will be the bar's vintage cash register and Table No. 1, a sought-after spot where patrons sat to see and be seen.

Two Andy Warhol prints and books signed by Richard Avedon, Katharine Hepburn and Truman Capote also are up for grabs.

The public can view the items at the auction house Sept. 17-19. A catalog is online at doylenewyork.com.

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Oscar statue from 1940s fetches $89,625 in Dallas auction (Reuters)

DALLAS (Reuters) – If you can't win an Oscar, why not buy one?

That's exactly what an avid movie buff did when a golden statue from the 1942 Academy Awards went up for auction on Friday.

A coveted collectible since Oscars are rarely for sale, the statue fetched $89,625, making it the star of bidding at Heritage Auction's movie and music auction in Dallas.

Nearly 800 items were up for bid, including items owned or worn by celebrities such as Elton John, Michael Jackson and Paul Newman, and guitars owned by Elvis Presley.

Heritage declined to release the identities of buyers. The company hosts auctions throughout the year, including a recent auction of dinosaur bones and an upcoming John Wayne auction in Los Angeles.

The Oscar statue was a rare item to turn up for sale, said Margaret Barrett, director of music and entertainment for Heritage Auctions.

A rule adopted in 1950 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences prohibits Academy Award winners or their heirs from selling a statue without first offering it back to the academy for a price of $1.

This Oscar, presented before that rule was enacted, was won by Nathan Levinson for best sound recording for the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy.

The film is a musical biography of entertainer George M. Cohan, starring James Cagney, who also took home an Oscar for best actor. The film earned eight nominations and won three Oscars, including Levinson's and Cagney's.

The Academy, which has given out about 2,800 of the hand-crafted statues since the awards began 1929, gave permission for the Oscar to be put up for auction and was offered by a private collector.

RARE MARILYN MONROE MEMORABILIA

The auction also featured Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, including rarely seen photographs from the private collection of Hollywood photographer Richard C. Miller, who died last year at the age of 98.

"Some of these images were from 1946, when she first started modeling," Barrett said. "Some of them appeared on the covers of old girlie magazines and haven't been seen since."

Marilyn Monroe was still known as Norma Jeane Dougherty when Miller started photographing her as a fresh-faced young model for the Blue Book Model Agency.

"He liked working with her because she was so photogenic," said Margaret Miller, one of photographer's two daughters.

Several of the old images, including Marilyn in the surf wearing a red bathing suit and Marilyn wearing a wedding dress, sold for about $1,500.

Miller again photographed her on the set of the film Some Like It Hot in 1959, and his photo of her in a sequined dress sold for $2,868.

Fetching $19,120, the most of any item from the Miller collection, was a model release form she signed with Miller in 1946 as Norma Jeane Dougherty.

The form was one of the more expensive items in the auction, along with a Pierrot costume worn by Elton John in two music videos in the 1980s. The costume sold for $14,340 and was presented to John by a German Pierrot in the 1970s.

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Cynthia Johnston)

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Bruce Lee items to be sold at Hong Kong auction (AFP)

HONG KONG (AFP) – Thirteen items belonging to the late kung fu legend Bruce Lee, including a 1966 letter he wrote and a fur-lined coat will go under the hammer in a Hong Kong auction next week, according to a report.

The sale, which could raise up to HK$880,000 ($112,900), is believed to be the largest-scale auction of his memorabilia in the southern Chinese city, where Lee was raised before moving to the United States in his late teens.

Items to be sold from his estate include a letter he wrote 45 years ago to a friend in which the martial arts specialist talked about the television series The Green Hornet, in which he played Kato, a confidant of the superhero.

"The item is meaningful in the sense that it can allow us to understand more about Bruce Lee's views and what he thought about his work at that time," Wong Yiu-keung, the Bruce Lee Fan Club chairman told the South China Morning Post.

Other items to be sold at the August 6 auction include a dark-blue fur-lined coat which was made around 1973 for Lee's film Game of Death, a membership card for his kung fu institute, and a name card of Lee.

The sale is jointly organised by auction houses America's Kelleher Auctions and Phila China of Hong Kong. Bruce Lee Fan Club and Phila China could not be reached for immediate comment on Saturday.

The Hong Kong government said last month that it has shelved a plan to turn Lee's old home in the southern Chinese city -- which later became a rundown love hotel -- into a museum, citing differences with the property owner.

Fans of the icon, who died in 1973 at the age of 32, have long called for museum dedicated to Lee in the city.

Lee -- credited with catapulting the martial arts film genre into the mainstream with films including Fists of Fury and the posthumously released Enter the Dragon -- died after a severe reaction to medication.

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