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PROPERTY FROM THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF MERCEDES DE ACOSTA
Mercedes de Acosta was a Spanish aristocrat who came to Hollywood in the early 1920s to write screenplays for the burgeoning film industry and it was there where she met the enigmatic Greta Garbo. The two women immediately formed an intimate relationship which lasted for a number of years -- they lived together in the then-remote Los Angeles outpost of Brentwood, they went on vacations and they collaborated on professional projects including Mercedes' script titled "The Life of Jehanne D'Arc." Though Garbo remained elusive throughout their friendship, de Acosta was a social butterfly who counted the literati and glitterati of the day among her close friends including Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keefe, Marlene Dietrich, Cole Porter, Cecil Beaton, Adrian, Isadora Duncan, Igor Stravinsky, Alice B. Toklas and Aldous Huxley among countless others. In 1960, de Acosta wrote a compelling autobiography titled "Here Lies the Heart" where she went into detail about her clandestine friendship with Garbo. Sadly, it was because of this book that Garbo decided to never speak with de Acosta again though she lived an additional eight years until she passed away in New York City at the age of seventy-five. De Acosta left behind a fascinating legacy and Christie's is proud to offer her large archive of personal items related to Greta Garbo in the below lot.
GRETA GARBO ARCHIVE OF MATERIALS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MERCEDES DE ACOSTA
CIRCA 1930S
Details
GRETA GARBO ARCHIVE OF MATERIALS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MERCEDES DE ACOSTA
Circa 1930s
A unique and extensive archive of mementos relating to Greta Garbo that Mercedes de Acosta saved during the course of their relatioship. Some of the items in this collection are mentioned in her autobiography and include: approximately twenty black and white unpublished snapshots of a topless Garbo with their negatives taken when the two had a tryst in Silverlake, Nevada, a number of negatives showing a nude de Acosta that Garbo took, pressed flowers and a lock of Garbo's light brown hair in an envelope with de Acosta's handwritten notation reading Greta's hair, flowers, rememberances, Garbo's and de Acosta's elaborate astrology charts, a deteriorated leather sandal owned by Garbo, two traced outlines of Garbo's feet, Christmas tags with Garbo's handwritten initials, numerous newspaper clippings, magazine articles and biographies about Garbo, a handwitten notebook filled with poetry that de Acosta wrote for Garbo from 1932 to 1944, the original screenplay de Acosta wrote for MGM (with the hopes that Garbo would star in it) titled "The Life of Jehanne D'Arc," many letters from Acosta's friends such as Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Cecil Beaton and Alice B. Toklas among others and a large group of materials about her accomplished family who were famous in New York society during the early part of the twentieth century.
Circa 1930s
A unique and extensive archive of mementos relating to Greta Garbo that Mercedes de Acosta saved during the course of their relatioship. Some of the items in this collection are mentioned in her autobiography and include: approximately twenty black and white unpublished snapshots of a topless Garbo with their negatives taken when the two had a tryst in Silverlake, Nevada, a number of negatives showing a nude de Acosta that Garbo took, pressed flowers and a lock of Garbo's light brown hair in an envelope with de Acosta's handwritten notation reading Greta's hair, flowers, rememberances, Garbo's and de Acosta's elaborate astrology charts, a deteriorated leather sandal owned by Garbo, two traced outlines of Garbo's feet, Christmas tags with Garbo's handwritten initials, numerous newspaper clippings, magazine articles and biographies about Garbo, a handwitten notebook filled with poetry that de Acosta wrote for Garbo from 1932 to 1944, the original screenplay de Acosta wrote for MGM (with the hopes that Garbo would star in it) titled "The Life of Jehanne D'Arc," many letters from Acosta's friends such as Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Cecil Beaton and Alice B. Toklas among others and a large group of materials about her accomplished family who were famous in New York society during the early part of the twentieth century.