Robert Evans’ estate auction over the weekend hauled in several hundred of thousands of dollars, including his Helmut Newton photograph collection which sold for $486,972, according to Julien’s Auctions.
Evans died Oct. 26, 2019. The iconic producer and studio chief was credited with resurrecting Paramount Pictures in the 1960s with a slew of classics, including Rosemary’s Baby, The Godfather and Chinatown.
His Chinatown Golden Globe nabbed $83,200, more than 27 times its original estimate of $3,000, according to the auction house. In the same realm, his third draft Chinatown script — signed with a note by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Towne — sold for $40,625, well over its original estimate of $8,000, Julien’s noted.
Evans’ leather-bound early annotated draft script of The Godfather — which included notes on casting the role of Tom Hagen, along with changed and deleted scenes — sold for $32,000, more than 10 times its original estimate of $3,000. Also sold was his “second draft” script from 1974’s The Godfather: Part II, which fetched $10,240, according to Julien’s.
Also in the Godfather realm: A set of two telegrams containing a heated exchange between director Francis Ford Coppola and Evans about the film sold for $38,400. The original estimate was $400, according to the auction house.
Also going for well over its estimation, Evans’ brass name lettering that hung on his Paramount Studios’ office door sold for an astounding $22,400 — 73 times its original estimate of $300.
