E.T. no home: Original model of movie alien doesn't sell at auction

NEW YORK, United States — An original model of E.T., created for Steven Spielberg's beloved film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," did not find a buyer after being put up for auction, Sotheby's auction house in New York said Thursday.

The piece, a little over a meter high and which had been estimated to fetch between $600,000 and $900,000 (P34.4 million to P51.6 million), comes from the collection of Italian special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi.

The three-time Oscar winner — including one for "E.T." — died in 2012 at the age of 86.

"Rambaldi's beloved ET model is an extraordinary piece of film history," Sotheby's vice chair Cassandra Hatton said. "While it did not find a buyer during today's auction, its significance remains undiminished."

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The model offered for sale is one of three used by Spielberg for his 1982 film.

In a statement before the auction, Hatton described the model as embodying "the artistry of an era before CGI (computer-generated imagery) took hold, a nostalgic and iconic piece of Hollywood history as captivating as the stories themselves."

Sotheby's said that a separate E.T. sketch made by Rambaldi had sold Thursday for over $53,000 (P3 million), well above its top-end estimate of $18,000 (P1.03 million).

In 2022, a metallic automaton representing E.T. and also used during the shooting of the successful film was sold for $2.56 million (P147 million) at an auction organized by the American house Julien's.

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