Famed director Guillermo Del Toro will auction off part of his coveted horror memorabilia collection that was almost destroyed by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
Del Toro, 60, teamed up with Heritage Auctions for the three-part sale that kicks off Sept. 26 online — and will only empty a small fraction of his sprawling collection, complete with exclusive pieces like pinup works for “Hellraiser,” behind-the-scenes drawings and rare props from his own films.
The first part of the auction will include hundreds of items, with more set to his the auction block next year. Each round will be structured to uncover who del Toro is first as a collector and, later, how he thinks as a filmmaker.
He asserted that the entire endeavor is a love letter to the collector community and a means to encourage others to “learn to read and write film design in a different way.”
“This one hurts. The next one, I’m going to be bleeding. If you love somebody, you have estate planning, you know, and this is me estate planning for a family that has been with me since I was a kid,” del Toro said.
The Oscar-winning director is one of the most celebrated modern filmmakers, in part for his unique visual twist and horror style imbued in his projects, which is apparent in his collections.
Outside of Hollywood, del Toro doubles as the sole caretaker of the “Bleak House,” which stretches across two and a half Santa Monica homes packed wall-to-wall with thousands of ghoulish creatures, iconic comic art, books and movie props.
The multipurpose houses are complete amalgams of museums, libraries and workspaces all wrapped into one, where most of del Toro’s massive collection is stored.
In a house tour with the Associated Press, “The Shape of Water” filmmaker showed off a “Haunted Mansion”-themed dining room complete with life-sized figures he would “say hi to” whenever he entered.
“This is curated. This is not a casual collection,” he explained.
The entire assemblage nearly went up in flames in January as the Los Angeles wildfires inched toward the homes. Del Toro had mere hours to empty out thousands of pieces of memorabilia.
He only managed to secure 150, but the residences were miraculously left untouched by the raging infernos.
That near-disaster, though, shocked del Toro to attention as he realized how easily the comprehensive collection could be lost if it remained in his possession alone, spoiling his self-assigned life’s mission to preserve “pieces of audiovisual history for humanity.”
“What came out of it? You collected insurance? And what happened to that little segment of Richard Corben’s life, or Jack Kirby’s craft, or Bernie Wrightson’s life?” Del Toro recalled thinking.
“Look, this is in reaction to the fires. This is in reaction to loving this thing,” he added.
That, and the “Pan’s Labryinth” director added, unloading some of the works will make it easier for him to care for the houses and the rest of the collection. He currently spends most of his days at the “Bleak House,” ensuring that the impressive collection isn’t being hit by direct sunlight and that temperature is still stable in the homes.
Del Toro isn’t burdened by the responsibility, though.
“As collectors, you are basically keeping pieces of culture for generations to come. They’re not yours,” he mused. “We don’t know which of the pieces you’re holding is going to be culturally significant … 100 years from now, 50 years from now. So that’s part of the weight.”
