Collector Buys 'World's Most Valuable Movie Poster' In L.A. Bankruptcy Court

What is thought to be the world's most valuable movie poster along with eight others sold to a film memorabilia collector for $1.2 million. The Metropolis poster by German Expressionist Heinz Schulz-Neudamm was purchased as part of a lot in a Los Angeles bankruptcy court Thursday.

Schulz-Neudamm created the poster in 1927 for the German Expressionist science-fiction film of the same title by Fritz Lang.

New Jersey resident Ralph DeLuca, who owns film memorabilia company Movie Archives Inc., won the bidding over three other bidders, Reuters reports. Bidding for the poster started at $700,000.

"I honestly feel that the 'Metropolis' poster is worth more than the whole lot," DeLuca told Reuters. A collector bought the futuristic poster for a record $690,000 back in 2005, which had been a record. Some speculated when it was filed with the bankruptcy court last summer that it could fetch as much as $1 million.

"I think I'll keep the poster unless I get overwhelmed with a 'Guinness Book of Records' offer," said DeLuca. "I believe it will be the first to go past $1 million and even hit $2 million."

Schulz-Neudamm's painting of the artificial woman, or the Robot, is used by a mad scientist to seduce an race of workers in a totalitarian futuristic urban city. Made in Germany during the Weimar Period, Metropolis is set in the year 2026 in a dystopian society in which a wealthy elite rules from vast tower complexes, oppressing the workers who live in the depths below. The silent film was written by Lang and his wife Thea Von Harbou, and starred Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge.

In 2008, a print of Lang's original cut of the film was found in Argentina.

[Source: Reuters]