Late Williams memorabilia fetches over US$6mil

New York: Art, film memorabilia and personal effects owned by the late actor Robin Williams and his wife fetched US$ 6.1mil (RM25.3mil) at auction in New York, four years after his death, Sotheby’s said.

The Oscar-winner, movie veteran, stand-up comedian and television star was one of Hollywood’s most popular entertainers whose death in August 2014 triggered an outpouring of emotion the world over.

More than 2,000 fans and collectors registered to bid for some 300 works owned by Williams and his second wife, film producer and philanthropist Marsha Garces Williams.

The most expensive lot was Swiss artist Adolf Wolfli’s Der San Salvathor that sold for US$795,000 (RM 3.3mil), the auction house said.

Stand-out items included a watercolour from the movie Good Will Hunting that sold for US$90,000 (RM373,000) and street artist Banksy’s Happy Choppers from 2006 that fetched US$735,000 (RM 3.04mil).

Williams won an Oscar in 1998 for Good Will Hunting.

The watercolour, painted by the film’s director Gus Van Sant and inscribed to Williams, was displayed in the office of his therapist character Sean Maguire.

The sale smashed pre-sale estimates of US $4.6mil (RM 19mil) with 95% of all lots sold.

Among the organisations to benefit are The Juilliard School in New York, where a permanent scholarship in Williams’ name will be set up, the Wounded Warrior Project and the Challenged Athletes Foundation. — AFP