Stanley Kubrick's Personal Archive Heads to Auction

Stanley Kubrick's films are remembered as complete worlds, but they began as working objects: marked-up scripts, storyboards, props, lenses, slates, costumes, and the tools of a director determined to control every detail. For the first time, a substantial group of that material is coming to auction directly from the Stanley Kubrick Film Archives.

Bonhams will hold the live Stanley Kubrick Collection auction at 101 New Bond Street in London on February 3, 2027. A companion online sale is scheduled to close beginning at noon on February 4. Together, the sales span original film props, annotated production documents, awards, filmmaking equipment, and objects from Kubrick's home and office.

The Star Child leads the collection

The headline lot is the original Star Child prop from 2001: A Space Odyssey, estimated at £600,000–£800,000. The object is both a special-effects artifact and one of the most recognizable images in Kubrick's cinema: the enigmatic figure that closes the film and turns its technological journey into something stranger and more metaphysical.

Material from The Shining forms another major thread. The Grady sisters' production-used costumes carry an estimate of £40,000–£60,000, while a production clapperboard is estimated at £10,000–£15,000. Jack Torrance's special-effects axe from the Dick Hallorann murder scene is estimated at £30,000–£50,000. Kubrick's own director's chair, used during the 1980s, is expected to bring £8,000–£12,000.

A working archive, not only memorabilia

The collection's more revealing objects may be those that preserve Kubrick's process. An annotated treatment for 2001, written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke under the working title Journey Beyond the Stars, is estimated at £30,000–£50,000. Kubrick's heavily annotated Lolita script carries a £40,000–£60,000 estimate, while his personal script for Spartacus is estimated at £20,000–£40,000.

There are also original storyboard sketches for Spartacus, Philip Castle promotional art for A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket, a viewfinder labeled with Kubrick's initials, and a 3½-inch Questar telescope used by Kubrick and Clarke. Personal objects, including a chess set estimated at £2,000–£4,000, connect the archive to habits that shaped his approach long before he became a filmmaker.

Public previews before the London sale

Selected highlights travel before the auction. The Los Angeles preview runs November 2–6, 2026 at Bonhams, 7601 West Sunset Boulevard. Paris presentations are scheduled for November 16–17, 21, and 23–24 at 6 avenue Hoche. The complete sale will then be shown free to the public at Bonhams New Bond Street in London from January 18 through February 3, 2027.

For collectors, provenance is the collection's defining strength: the material is offered directly from the Stanley Kubrick Film Archives. Buyers should still examine individual lot descriptions, condition reports, dimensional details, and rights notices before bidding, particularly where an object combines a physical prop with protected film imagery or studio intellectual property.

Read the official Bonhams announcement and visit the auction page for current lot information, viewing details, and registration.