Personal effects belonging to the film-maker David Lynch, who died in January, have fetched more than $4m at auction in Los Angeles, with the highest bid of $195,000 going to scripts for his unrealised film project Ronnie Rocket.
Wednesday’s auction of almost 450 items included props from Lynch’s films, personal items such as video cameras and music equipment, his director’s chair, two taxidermy deer heads, his 35mm print of his debut feature Eraserhead – and his beloved La Marzocco GS/3 home espresso machine, which fetched $45,500 and presumably produces a damn fine cup of coffee.
Big-ticket items included scripts from the production of Mulholland Drive, which sold for $104,000, and for the pilot episode of Twin Peaks, which sold for $91,000. His director’s chair, emblazoned with his name, fetched $70,000.
The director’s custom-built guitar with five fretted necks sold for $39,000, while his red curtain and black and white zigzag rug, in the style of the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks, fetched $32,500.
The total, which goes to his estate, came in at approximately $4.25m including auction house fees.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest single sale was a group of 11 scripts for Ronnie Rocket: The Absurd Mystery of The Strange Forces of Existence. The director started working on the screenplay after the success of his 1977 debut Eraserhead but shelved it when he was unable to secure financing.
Over the years, as drafts of Ronnie Rocket circulated on the internet, the project accrued cult status – to the chagrin of Lynch, who preferred to keep his work tightly under wraps until completion.
But elements of the story, which Lynch said concerned “a three-foot tall guy with red hair and physical problems, and about 60-cycle alternating current electricity” as well a detective attempting to enter a mysterious alternate dimension, appeared in many of his subsequent film and TV projects.
It’s not known who bought the trove of scripts, or whether Ronnie Rocket might get his day on screen after all.
