Another copy of this poster, one of only four remaining, was sold recently for 690' 000 US$ to an american collector by the Reel Poster Gallery in London.
Read the full story on the Poster of the month web site of the library.
The Learn About Movie Posters web site lists the previous record holders for movie poster prices (The Mummy, King Kong, Frankenstein ..), from 453' 000 US$ all the way down to a mere 5' 000 US$.
On November 29, 2005, Marianne Jobst, head of the Posters, Flyers and Ex Libris section of the Austrian National Library, sent some more information about the poster. A german version of this text was published by the APA (Austria Presse Agentur).
The most expensive film poster of the world in the holdings of Austrian National Library
A poster for the classic science fiction movie "Metropolis" was sold at the record sum of $690.000. As reported by the "Independent" on November 16th, 2005, a collector from the USA acquired one of the four originals still existing from the Reel Poster Gallery in London. The other copies are in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York, in a further private collection and in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. The Filmmuseum Berlin only holds a reproduction of the vintage poster from Vienna.
The Art-Deco poster of Heinz Schulz Neudamm was the highlight of an exhibition on the history of the famous German film production company UFA, arranged in cooperation by the Austrian National Library and the Filmmuseum Berlin. The exhibit was shown in Berlin and Vienna from 1998 to 1999 and titled "UFA Film Poster 1918 -- 1943", in New York (Museum of Modern Art 1998) and in Los Angeles (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences 1999).
For five years the exhibition has been shown world-wide in the Goethe Institutes, if only with reproductions and not with the vintage posters. At present the posters are at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
The Austrian National Library has an important collection of over 3' 000 film posters, including 1' 777 rare silent movie posters from Hollywood, Germany, Austria and other European countries. The collection already started as early as 1929 with the foundation of the "Archive for the History of Film" by Joseph Gregor. See: Object of the month: November 2005
Bibliography:
Das Ufa-Plakat. Filmpremieren 1918 bis 1943. Hrsg. von Peter Mänz und Christian Maryška. Heidelberg: Edition Braus 1998
Ufa Film Posters 1918-1943. Edited by Peter Mänz and Christian Maryška. Heidelberg: Umschau Braus 1998
CD-ROM: Filmplakate der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek 1910-1955. München: Saur 1998. (Reihe DISKUS Nr. 11)