The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added a feather into the cap of its under-construction museum by purchasing an iconic prop from 2001: A Space Odyssey: the Aries 1B Trans-Lunar Spherical Space Shuttle.
According to Deadline, the price was a cool $344,000. The model is especially significant because not much remains from the 2001 production, by deliberate choice:
Most of the props, sets, costumes and models for this landmark 1968 film were purposely destroyed by director Stanley Kubrick in order to keep them from being used in other movies. This one was one of the few items that survived and was originally owned in the 70’s by a public school art teacher who was given the lunar model with the agreement the electronics from the shuttle be removed to teach this technology to his students.
An Indiewire report further notes:
The shuttle model came with a detailed Letter of Provenience from the English collector, a local school teacher from Kubrick’s long-time residence of Hertfordshire, England, who originally obtained it in 1975 and stored the Space Shuttle for over 40 years at his personal studio.
The shuttle is described as being both “the actual hero screen used SFX model” and in “amazingly good condition;” film fans will recognize it as the transportation method Dr. Heywood Floyd uses to get from the International Space Station to Clavius Base on the Moon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCLJyRBWtEY
Top image via Indiewire
