Russell Crowe unloaded dozens of items Saturday night at a Sotheby’s auction in a bid to help him fund his divorce from ex-wife Danielle Spencer.
Even Oscar winners need a little help paying the bills.
Russell Crowe unloaded dozens of items Saturday night at a Sotheby’s auction in a bid to help him fund his divorce from ex-wife Danielle Spencer — and wound up raking in more than $3 million.
« The Art of Divorce, » as the « Gladiator » star titled the event, went down in Sydney on his 54th birthday, and featured more than 200 items, including movie memorabilia, antique treasures, artwork and a collection of instruments.
« In case anyone is interested… $3.7m at the coal face and around $350k of conversations ongoing … and a bunch of stuff I didn’t really want to sell coming home … not a bad hourly rate for a 5 hour shift, » Crowe joked on Twitter Saturday night.
See photos of Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer together:
Among the most popular items was the breastplate he wore in « Gladiator » when his character Maximus (spoiler alert) bites the dust. The piece sold for $125,000, while matching leather wrist cuffs scored $32,000.
He also sold items from movies like « Master and Commander, » « The Silver Brumby » and « Proof, » though the Royal Navy dress blues from « Master » proved extremely popular, bringing in a $115,000 haul.
One of the more curious items was the leather jockstrap Crowe wore in the 2005 film « Cinderella Man. » The protective piece went for $7,000 to one lucky bidder.
« I put it in the collection as a piece of whimsy and a bit of a gag. Funny enough, it’s garnered a lot of attention, » Crowe told « Good Morning Britain » on Friday.
He and Spencer wed in 2003, and news broke of their split in 2012. The divorce is just about finalized, and the ex-couple share two children.
« Getting to this point with the divorce, and no matter how amicable a split is, you’ve still got to unwind things at a deep level, » he said. « I’ve never been somebody who deconstructs thigns. I’ve always been somebody who builds things. So it was quite a big lesson in life to become somebody who can deconstruct things. And I thought to myself, ‘While I’m in the middle of doing that, how else can I do that? How else can I apply that?’ And this is what I came up with. »
