An iconic wood panel, generally thought of as a door, from the 1997 movie “Titanic,” has sold for more than half a million dollars at an auction.
According to Heritage Auctions, ”the piece of wood that saved Rose – but controversially, not Jack – was “the king” of the auction, selling for $718,750.
The wood panel is “often mistakenly referred to as a door” by movie fans, Heritage Auctions said in a press release. “The ornate structure was in reality part of the door frame just above the first-class lounge entrance” on director James Cameron’s reconstruction of the ship that sank in 1912, the auction house said.
The prop has caused much debate from fans, many of whom have argued that the floating wood panel could have supported both Jack and Rose – making his fateful decision to stay in the frigid water an empty gesture. Cameron later engaged in a scientific study to prove that this plot point was more than just a convenient narrative device.
The five-day auction event included a trove of Hollywood items, among them the whip from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and Bill Murray’s red-rose bowling ball from “Kingpin.”