Gene Hackman's Secret Treasures: Mysterious Auction Reveals Prized Possessions Late Oscar-Winning Actor Kept Hidden From the World
Gene Hackman kept plenty of momentos from his glittering career, despite claiming he had no film memorabilia during one of his last interviews.
Dec. 4 2025, Published 12:50 p.m. ET
Gene Hackman kept a treasure trove of possessions from his glittering career, despite declaring he wasn't "nostalgic" and didn’t bother taking home film memorabilia, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The secret possessions from his time in Hollywood were recently put up for sale in three separate auctions.
Aladdin's Cave
Two of Hackman's four Golden Globes were put up for auction.
The items were collected from his Santa Fe home, where Hackman and his second wife, Betsy Arakawa, were tragically found dead in February, as well as one of their dogs.
Arakawa, 65, had contracted hantavirus, a rare disease linked to rodents that can cause respiratory failure. She died about a week before her 95-year-old husband, who had cardiovascular disease and advanced Alzheimer's and was reliant on her for his care. Their bodies were not found for another week.
So far, $ 2million has already been raised from the auction held by Bonhams auction house, with hundreds of lots still to come, and the proceeds are likely to go to his trust.
Items available to purchase include two of his four Golden Globes, photos from the set of Bonnie and Clyde, production notes, scripts, contracts, contact sheets, and handwritten letters.
'I Didn't Keep Memorabilia Around The House'
Hackman previously claimed he did not have 'any memorabilia around the house.'
In his last interview, in 2011, Hackman claimed he didn’t "have any memorabilia around the house."
He added at the time: "There isn't any movie stuff except a poster downstairs next to the pool table of Errol Flynn from Dawn Patrol. I'm not a sentimental guy."
Still up for grabs are 20 years of Screen Actors Guild membership cards, Oscars invitations and voting guidelines, and stacks of scripts, among them his treatment for The Silence of the Lambs.
Also among the lots are production notes from the 1998 film Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith, and a binder of documents and photos from Crimson Tide, in which he appeared alongside Denzel Washington.
The most valuable items were auctioned in New York on November 19.
Money raised from the auction is likely to go to the late actor's trust.
Thirteen works of art went under the hammer, including two Rodin sculptures, the priciest of which went for $108,450, and a Kandinsky lithograph that fetched $46,080.
The top lot was a Milton Avery oil painting, Figure on the Jetty, which sold for $505,500, the largest sum from the collection so far.
On November 8, Bonhams began the first of two online auctions, which concluded on November 21.
A Matisse drawing fetched $21,760; several black and white photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson were also sold, including one of Matisse holding a dove in his studio, which made $11,520.
Battle Over Estate
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Hackman left his children, including daughters Elizabeth and Leslie, out of his will after they became estranged in later life.
Some of Hackman’s own paintings also made up part of the auction. The most valuable is a copy made by him of Russian artist Philipp Malyavin's Peasant Women, which sold for $28,160.
Hackman left his entire $80million estate to his wife, with nothing to his three children.
But, since both Hackman and Arakawa are deceased, the estate will pass over to a private trust he established, and it may never be known who inherits what.
At least one of the children has hired a lawyer, in what experts say is a routine step in probate procedures.
