Disappeared in an attic for years, a collection of
Star Wars
artifacts belonging to actor Peter Mayhew, who played the alien Chewbacca, will be returned to his widow who was unhappy to see it reemerge for a coveted auction by fans of the saga.
British giant Peter Meyhew, who died in 2019, was a 2m21 actor who played Chewbacca in the original film and the rest of the saga until 2015. He and his wife Angie had sold their house in Keighley in north England. England a quarter of a century ago, leaving
Star Wars
items in the attic.
Among the “souvenirs” were notably scripts and autographed photos.
Subsequent owners recovered the memorabilia and presented them to auction specialists, who shared the finds with the media and announced a sale in February.
The auction house Ryedale Auctioneers had auctioned the objects for 150 pounds (170 euros) per object.
Alerted by the success of the sale with fans, the actor's widow published on the Twitter account of the Peter Mayhew Foundation, an association in his memory, that she was
"heartbroken to see our goods being sold to auctions like that”
.
According to her, Mayhew's mobility issues had made it
"impossible for him to go to the attic to retrieve the rest of those memories"
.
It was
"one of the couple's biggest regrets"
, she said on the social network on Wednesday.
On Friday, the auction house removed the images of the items from its website.
"Knowing how important (these objects) are to the foundation (...) the sellers are happy to donate them to the foundation to remain in their permanent collection, (...) so that the fans have access forever
,” auction house owner Angus Ashworth said in a statement to AFP.
