Maximus price! Crowe’s movie memorabilia nets £2m at ‘divorce auction’
Split: Danielle Spencer and Crowe THE breastplate Russell Crowe wore for his Oscar-winning role in Gladiator 18 years ago sold for £68,000 at his £2million auction of memorabilia.
It was among costumes and props from his best-known films that went under the hammer as part of his divorce settlement from singer Danielle Spencer.
The armour he wore as Maximus Decimus Meridius fetched more than four times its estimate at the Sotheby’s Australia sale named The Art of Divorce in Sydney on Saturday, Crowe’s 54th birthday. It would have been his 15th wedding anniversary.
A 128-year-old Italian violin by Leandro Bisiach that Crowe learned to play for Master and Commander sold for £73,528, while a leather boxer’s protector he wore in Cinderella Man went for £3,822, 11 times the estimate. Crowe, who also sold paintings from his personal collection, told the crowd: ‘It’s exciting isn’t it?’