HOW TO DIVORCE LIKE A FILM STAR (have an auction!)
After his split from wife Danielle Spencer, Oscar winner Russell Crowe is selling off more than 200 of their possessions including her jewellery, the sword he used in Gladiator and his jock strap from Cinderella Man
AS one of cinema’s most iconic characters, Gladiator’s General Maximus, Russell Crowe declared: “What we do in life echoes in eternity”. And it seems that at the age of 53 and freshly divorced from wife Danielle Spencer he is putting that philosophy into practical action: by ridding himself of a large number of his earthly possessions.
Sotheby’s Australia today will host an auction of 227 of Crowe’s “personal items” with a combined value of £2million. They include artworks, sporting memorabilia, a collection of 19 guitars, no fewer than 28 watches, as well as many props and costumes from some of his most famous films.
Fancy the armour Maximus wore during his final, fatal fight in the Colosseum in Gladiator? Yours for about £14,000. A “fullyfunctioning” replica Roman chariot from the same film? A snip at £4,000 – with two “life-sized prop horses” even cheaper at around £1,600 each.
Pop star Ed Sheeran is even reportedly considering a bid for the aluminium prop sword used in Gladiator, estimated at between £1,600 and £2,200.
Fans of classical music and/or naval adventuring could do worse than bid on Crowe’s 1890 £77,000 Leandro Bisiach Snr violin, as bowed by his character Captain Jack Aubrey in the 2003 high-seas romp Master And Commander.
Those on a more modest budget might fancy the ice skates Crowe sported in the film Mystery Alaska (£330) or even his brown leather jock strap from Cinderella Man – a snip at £300.
The collection is entitled The Art Of Divorce, the final act in Crowe and Spencer’s time together. After marrying in April 2003 and having two sons – Charles, 14 and Tennyson, 11 – they separated in 2012 but only finalised the divorce late last year.
WHILE Crowe has reportedly handed over possession of their £6million Rose Bay mansion in Sydney to his ex, he would appear to also be taking the opportunity to offload any other reminders of his life with her.
“It’s definitely a cathartic experience, you know, going through this,” he said. “But actually, curating the collection has been really joyful.”
He also insists that the clearout has been a joint idea. “I told her [Danielle] what I was doing and she thought it was really funny but I think for a period of time she thought it was a concept I’d come up with purely for amusement,” he said.
He added that Spencer agreed to include many of her own possessions as lots, saying: “She’s put a whole bunch of stuff into the auction herself.”
That “bunch of stuff” includes a glittering array of earrings, necklaces and rings, among them a platinum and 18-carat white gold diamond ring with an estimate of £38,000 to £55,000. “Danielle is a very simple person,” he said. “She didn’t need that much stuff.” It remains unclear how the resulting money will be split between them.
With an estimated net worth of £70million it seems unlikely that Crowe’s spectacular car boot sale has been prompted by necessity – despite the rumoured £15million divorce payout to Danielle. And when asked what he planned to do with the cash raised from the auction he confessed he wasn’t actually sure.
“I have no real specific use for it,” he said. “I haven’t really thought about that, you know?”
Perhaps it is simply that, newly divorced and at the mid-point in his life, the Gladiator star really is looking for a more straightforward, less cluttered life. Something that might “echo in eternity”, in fact.