Cowardly Lion Costume from the 'Wizard of Oz' and Piano from the movie 'Casablanca' has recently acquired more than 3 million dollars at the Bonham's Turner Classic Movies auction.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Cowardly Lion costume, owned by Los Angeles TV museum founder James Comisar, fetched 3,077,000 dollars, which includes a buyer's premium of 477,000 dollars. The costume had been left in an old MGM building before it was rescued by a junk dealer cleaning out the abandoned building.
Comisar bought the costume, which is made up of real lion's fur, and had it preserved by professional museum curators.
The piano, which an anonymous Los Angeles-area collector owned for decades, fetched 3,413,000 dollars, including a buyer's premium of 513,000 dollars.
The piano is the one Sam (Dooley Wilson) played in Rick's Cafe Americain in Casablanca. The piano was likely built in 1927 and used in several productions. It features a modification made for the movie so that Rick (Humphrey Bogart) could open the lid from the rear to hide papers.
