Original artwork from a travelling exhibition celebrating cult TV series Star Trek will be sold online at Heritage Auctions on April 15.
The show, titled Star Trek: 50 Artists. 50 Years, stopped at 11 cities in Europe, the US and the Middle East between 2016 and 2017, including the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, and was seen by hundreds of thousands of people. The collection has since been published in a glossy hardback by Titan Books.
Among the most intriguing pieces up for grabs is Leonard Nimoy’s Hand in Vulcan Gesture. The photographic collage was created just a few months before the star’s death in 2015.
It features a shot of Nimoy’s hand repeated and coloured with different filters, creating a Warhol style effect.
There’s also a mocked-up box of “Galile-Os” cereal, displaying an image of William Shatner on the front and cardboard trading cards of original cast members on the reverse.
The piece is by Juan Ortiz, a designer best known for a series of retro posters he created for each episode of the original series.
"This is the first time a body of work like this has ever been offered at auction at one time," said Giles Moon, an entertainment consignment director at Heritage Auctions. "The artworks are marvelous and truly capture how Star Trek’s television programs and films have influenced generations of artists around the world."
No estimates are available for the lots, but given the show’s huge fan base it’s safe to say competition will be fierce. A major sale of artwork and memorabilia from the show pulled in a whopping $7.1m at Christie’s in 2006.
