Film star Russell Crowe made around $3.7 million from a high profile ‘divorce auction’ in Sydney last Saturday.

Russell Crowe and his wife of nine years, Danielle Spencer separated in 2012 but until this week, the pair were not officially divorced. Crowe announced the divorce to the world on Twitter last weekend.

Talking about his divorce, Crowe said:

"The process of divorce and no matter how positive you are and in agreement with the fact that you are separated...there's still a lot of really deep things to unwind," Russell said. "So through the course of that, I started to just look around and go, 'How can I celebrate this? How can I put this in a different perspective and actually get some joy out of this instead of just sadness?' So this is what I came up with."

The auction ran for over five hours and was held on the controversial actor's 54^th birthday, as well as 15^th anniversary of his marriage to now ex-wife Danielle Spencer, with whom he has two sons.

Crowe said he wanted to unburden himself of personal possessions and film memorabilia in the wake of his recently completed divorce and "move forward into fresh air”.

He told the Sydney Daily Telegraph:

“…this collection probably equates to three rooms full of things I’ll no longer have to care for, document, clean, tune and insure.”

The auction, entitled The Art of Divorce, was staged by Sotheby’s Australia and attracted major interest from a worldwide audience. Film fans were out in force with a large number of props and memorabilia on offer.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the most popular lots originated from Crowe’s biggest hit in 2000, Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott. His character’s embossed breastplate sold for $125,000 and his sword for $70,000.

The National Museum paid $10,000 for the boots Crowe wore in Romper Stomper and $2000 for Crowe's costume from The Silver Brumby but missed on on the replica chariot from Gladiator which sold for $65,000.

Crowe made an appearance at the event, sporting a grey beard and appearing on stage after the audience had been coaxed into singing Happy Birthday to the star. 

The occasional musician then suggested that the buyer of an 1890 Italian violin used in the 2003 film Master and Commander “might want to lend it to a young musician so it carries on and starts to play in the concert halls around the world”.

Crowe then gestured to Bridget O’Donnell, a member of the Australia Youth Orchestra, suggesting her in particular, before she joined him on stage and played extracts from the film’s soundtrack on the auctioned violin which had already sold for $135,000.

The evening’s biggest price tags were reserved, for Crowe’s collection of modern art. A painting by Australian artist Charles Blackman titled The Suitor, sold for $360,000.

The thing I would like to know is, was there a value assigned to this collection of memorabilia in the couple's property settlement which ended up with Crowe, meaning he will pocket the sale proceeds or did the couple agree to auction off items and split the earnings? 

 

Published by: Divorce Resource

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