Take us to your highest bidder: Hollywood aliens on the auction block

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20th Century Props in North Hollywood, billed as the largest prop house under one roof, is closing its doors after four decades, another casualty of the rough economy in Tinseltown. A public auction is now underway both on site and by webcast though Aug. 1 (it starts at 9:30 a.m. each day)

The sell-off has some fun pop-culture artifacts, such as Dr. Evil’s escape pod from the 1997 film ‘Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery’ and a whole mess of extraterrestrials, as you see above. There are 97,000 items under the roof of the company, which has been renting them out for films, television shows and commercials for decades.

You can read more about the items for sale at our sister blog L.A. at Home or watch an interesting audio slideshow about the auction that features the photos of Mel Melcon of the Los Angeles Times and narration by the prop company’s owner, Harvey Schwartz. We also have a photo gallery from the first days of the auction.

-- Geoff Boucher

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