Rare poster price scares buyers

New York – A rare, original poster from the Boris Karloff horror classic, The

Mummy, went unsold on Wednesday when no one bid the $950 000 (R13.8 million) minimum.

Sotheby’s had predicted that the work, one of only three known surviving examples of the original lithographic poster from the 1932 film, would fetch up to $1.5 million.

The auction house described it as “one of the rarest and most celebrated film posters in existence, and a seminal example of the graphic design pioneered by Hollywood studios during their golden age of horror”.

“Unfortunately, the work did not find a buyer ... but that does not in any way detract from its importance,” Sotheby’s said.

The poster set a record more than 20 years ago when it fetched $453 500. A poster from Dracula, the 1931 horror film, sold for $525 800 in 2017. –