A replica of one of Raquel Welch’s famously undersized costumes has made an outsized price at auction.
The faux-fur bikini Raquel Welch wore as a cave woman in One Million Years BC realised £10,000 as a sale of Ms Welch’s personal items topped $1 million at auction.
Raquel Welch died, aged 82, in February 2023.
She enjoyed a long film career, and was perceived as a sex symbol after the 1966 British-made caveman movie was released. A best-selling poster of Welch in her bikini probably had a greater cultural impact than the Hammer picture from which it came.
A faux fur replica of the costume (in fact three separate items all made from doe skin) was among three iconic swimsuits in the sale.
A bikini from the film Bedazzled fetched £18,000. Another, from the film Myra Breckingridge, made nearly £5,000.
This necklace made the top price at the sale, which exceeded expectations.
The top item in the sale, which supassed its estimate by nearly 200 times, was a necklace worn for a famous photoshoot and to the Myra Breckinridge premiere.
It realised $195,000 (£156,000) against an opening estimate of $1,000 (£800).
Film costumes can be very valuable if they are well known enough. Marilyn Monroe has continued to be just about the most collectible Hollywood star of any era and her costumes can set enormous figures at auction. In 2011, the “subway dress” that billowed up in The Seven Year Itch made $5.52 million against a $1 million to $2 million estimate.
