The Academy is expanding its collection for the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, having secured the Aries 1B Trans-Lunar Space Shuttle from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Academy purchased the model at Premiere Props’ Hollywood Extravaganza auction last Saturday for the impressive sum of $344,000.
The shuttle features prominently in a memorable sequence in 2001, transporting Dr. Heywood R. Floyd (William Sylvester) from the international space station to investigate a monolith buried in the Clavius crater by unknown extraterrestrial beings.
The model measures approximately 32 inches in height, 27 inches in width, and 28 inches in depth, with a diameter of about 94 inches. According to the auction house, Stanley Kubrick, the director of this cinematic milestone, deliberately destroyed most of the film’s props, sets, models, and costumes to prevent their reuse in other productions. However, this shuttle survived and was purchased in 1975 by an art teacher who removed its electronics to showcase the technologies used to his students.
Other items at the auction included costumes from Silver Linings Playbook, Captain America: The First Avenger, August: Osage County, and St. Vincent, along with hundreds of other pieces of memorabilia.The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is set to open in late 2017, with construction scheduled to begin next summer.
Source: Variety.com
