Liza Minnelli auction fetches superstar prices

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Liza Minnelli’s signature “Cabaret” bowler hat, boots and halter top vest fetched $81,250 at a Los Angeles auction, while her hand-annotated shooting script for the 1972 movie sold for $15,000, organizers Profiles in History said on Wednesday.

The three-day “Love, Liza” auction in Los Angeles, coming from the vast personal collection of the actress and singer, raised more than $1.2 million, with some items selling for more than triple their pre-sale estimates.

The more than 1,700 lots included items belonging to Minnelli’s parents - actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli - and hundreds of the singer’s hats, scarves and Halston designer outfits from the 1970s.

Garland’s blond Dorothy wig from “The Wizard of Oz,” which was later replaced by simply brown braids, went for $17,500 - 16 times the original estimate. Vincente Minnelli’s photo collection spanning his film career fetched $11,875.

Profiles in History declined to release information on the buyers.

Memorabilia from “Cabaret,” which brought Minnelli an Oscar for her performance as Berlin nightclub singer Sally Bowles and sent her career rocketing, attracted some of the fiercest bidding.

Her shooting script for the musical was estimated to fetch just $2,000 ahead of the sale, while her iconic boots and bowler hat costume had an estimate of $6,000.

Minnelli, 72, said earlier this year that she wanted to downsize her life and sell off the collection she had amassed over decades and kept in more than six locations.

“I woke up one day and thought, ‘Honey, you ain’t gonna wait till you’ve bought the farm and leave your life on someone else’s doorstep.’ So it was time to go there, and I have, and it feels good,” she is quoted as saying in the auction catalog.

Some of the proceeds of the sale will benefit the Great American Songbook Foundation which aims to preserve America’s musical legacy.

Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Diane Craft

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