AN IMPORTANT & ORIGINAL GROUP OF 35 GRETA GARBO MOVIE STILLS FROM ANNA KARENINA

AN IMPORTANT & ORIGINAL GROUP OF 35 GRETA GARBO MOVIE STILLS FROM ANNA KARENINA

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This phenomenal and outstanding offering of original movie stills from the renowned film Anna Karenina were purportedly personally owned by Greta Garbo herself. These are printed on heavy paper and primarily depicts scenes from the movie but also include a behind the scenes imagery of the filming. The entire lot is in outstanding condition, with each written in pencil on the reverse “Anna Karenina 1935”. Each are in plastic protectors in a ring binder to protect them.

This wonderful collection of Garbo movie stills purportedly were her personal photos and purportedly came from her home. In 1995, an auction house in Maine conducted a major auction of a private collection of Greta Garbo material. A noted documents collector over the years amassed an extraordinary array of photos and personal items of Ms. Garbo’s. The majority of the things he purchased were from the renowned documents expert and dealer Charles Montgomery. The auction was truly a major event, and probably one of the more significant auctions of Garbo’s personal material. In 1925 when Garbo traveled to the US from Sweden to begin working for MGM, until her death in 1990, she remained an incredibly and intensely private and often reclusive individual. She rarely allowed photographs of herself, other than promotional ones for movies and very, very rarely ever autographed anything. This sale was notable not only for the vast array of professional movie photographs, but also for all the personal material that was Garbo’s, for instance her daybook from 1925 when she came to the United States was included, numerous personal letters that Garbo had received and amongst the personal photos were a small group of stunning private images of Garbo on a vacation where she is topless and wearing only shorts. This was really a significant Garbo event and various news publications including one from Sweden traveled to Maine to cover the auction, as did a relative of the late Ms. Garbo’s. This disgruntled individual who represented himself as the nephew of Ms. Garbo, attended the auction and he claimed these items had belonged to his aunt Greta and maintained she would never have sold these things if she was still alive and he purchased some things and later in a post auction interview with Associated Press, he complained that the majority of these items had been Ms. Garbo’s personal things.

It certainly makes sense that it would’ve been. The original collector had previously shared with the auctioneer that he had purchased most of the things from Montgomery, who in turn had shared with him that he had bought the majority of the goods from a young man whose mother was a personal live-in partner of Greta Garbo’s, so it’s very likely that most of the things in that auction actually were the personal possessions of Ms. Garbo. Ms. Garbo was a truly beautiful woman, but when she appeared in the American movie world around 1925 until her death in 1990, Garbo remained an intensely private and off times reclusive individual, rarely did she allow anyone to photograph her or interview her and precious few autographs of hers exist. SIZE: Each image is 8″ x 10″.