German artist Heinz Schulz-Neudamm created the poster for Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece Metropolis, and didn't live long enough to see it sell for a record $690,000. Guess how much it's expected to fetch when it gets sold again?
Earlier this year, the illustration was appraised at $250,000 as part of a bankruptcy filing by it's previous owner (hint - if you're not paying hundreds of thousands for a a poster, you won't be bankrupt), but when it went up for sale in March, the list price was $850,000 - and some appraisers believe it could be the first poster to sell for $1 million. Not bad for what is considered "the crown jewel of the poster world."
But look at it this in context: yesterday, are rare original copy of Abraham Lincoln's vampire hunting checklist Emancipation Proclamation was auctioned of for slightly more than $2 million. Though that is the second-highest price ever paid for a Lincoln-signed proclamation (after one owned by Robert Kennedy that went for $3.8 million in 2010), and is one of only 25 copies in existence, it basically says that a cool movie poster from 90 years ago is half as valuable as a document that ostensibly ended slavery. Thanks, America!
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