David Lynch Memorabilia Collection Fetches $4.25 Million at Auction, Shattering Expectations

Every single item from the late filmmaker’s nearly 450-item collection was sold at the Julien’s Auctions event in Los Angeles.

David Lynch walks the red carpet during the 12th Rome Film Fest in Rome, Italy, on Nov. 4, 2017. Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

A collection of memorabilia from the estate of late Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch fetched millions at auction and included sought-after scripts from an unfinished film project.

On June 18, Julien’s Auctions, in partnership with Turner Classic Movies, hosted the live event at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, drawing in hundreds of collectors, cinephiles, and fans alike.

Nearly 450 items went under the hammer, with the white-glove auction raising a whopping $4.25 million.

The personal archive of relics featured production furniture and equipment, film props, tools, instruments, and more.

“Every object in this collection served as a window into Lynch’s surreal and uncompromising creative world,” said Catherine Williamson, Julien’s Managing Director of Entertainment.

“The global response to the auction speaks not only to the cultural importance of his legacy, but to the profound admiration and reverence he inspires.”

Highlighted sales include a personalized director’s chair sold for $91,000, a large framed photograph of a nuclear bomb explosion from season 3 of the hit television mystery drama “Twin Peaks: The Return” for $45,500 and print comprising 35mm Eastman Kodak film of his debut feature film “Eraserhead” for $52,000.

At the top of the auction block, fetching $195,000, was a group of 11 original scripts from Lynch’s unfinished movie project “Ronnie Rocket: The Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence.”

Over the years, draft spoilers circulated online with the film being described as a science-fiction mystery that focuses on the central child character, Ronnie Rocket, who revolves around the strange forces of existence like electricity.

Other compelling hot-ticket items were a set of three annotated scripts from “Mulholland Drive” sold for $104,000 and a script from neo-noir horror “Lost Highway” also for $195,000.

The famed director and writer died in January at the age of 78 as a result of cardiac arrest due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Last year, he disclosed he had been diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic lung disease, following a lifetime of smoking cigarettes.

With nearly 300 credits throughout filmmaking, writing, and producing combined, Lynch is known for his unique, mysterious, and artistic cinematic perspective.

He earned 63 awards and four Academy Award nominations for his work writing and directing the 1980s biographical drama “The Elephant Man” and for psychological thrillers “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive.”

Lynch also added author to his resume, writing dozens of books like his autobiography “Catching the Big Fish: Meditation,” memoir “Room to Dream,” and his self-expression visionary piece “Images.”