A 1932 “Mummy” Poster May Become the World’s Most Expensive Poster

The artwork for the Boris Karloff vehicle is expected to fetch more than $1 million.

Boris Karloff in the 1932 motion picture The Mummy. A poster from "The Mummy" may fetch more than $1 million at auction this month. Photo by Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Boris Karloff in the 1932 motion picture The Mummy. A poster from "The Mummy" may fetch more than $1 million at auction this month. Photo by Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
Bettmann Archive

A poster for the 1932 Boris Karloff horror classic The Mummy opens at auction today, and it may well become the most expensive in history. This Mummy poster became the world’s priciest in 1997 at $453,500, before being eclipsed in 2014 by a poster for 1927’s London After Midnight. A 1931 Dracula currently holds the record after selling for $525,800 in 2017.

Actors Zita Johann and Boris Karloff appear on the poster for the Universal Pictures film ‘The Mummy, 1932. (Photo by Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images)
Getty Images

The item is expected to sell in the range of $1-1.5 million. The artwork was originally designed by Karoly Grosz, who was advertising director at Universal at the time. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett owns one of the three remaining, known Mummy posters.

Sotheby’s will begin the auction on Thursday, closing, appropriately on Halloween night, October 31.

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