Russell Crowe Just Held Very Successful Divorce Auction

Actor made $2.8M hawking memorabilia from his career to finance divorce from Danielle Spencer

By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 8, 2018 7:04 AM CDT

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Russell Crowe Just Held Very Successful Divorce Auction — A chariot from the film "Gladiator" owned by Russell Crowe is on display to be auctioned by Sotheby's auction house as part of the 'Russell Crowe: The Art of Divorce Auction' at Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia, Saturday, April 7, 2018. (Ben Rushton/AAP Image via AP)

If there's an art to divorce, Russell Crowe has mastered the profiting off of it: The actor rang in his 54th birthday and anniversary to soon-to-be ex-wife Danielle Spencer on Saturday with a wide-ranging auction of memorabilia from his storied career that netted $2.8 million, reports the Guardian. Sotheby's handled the event in Sydney, which featured Crowe himself, who later tweeted that it wasn't "a bad hourly rate for a 5 hour shift." Among the loot, also via Fox News:

Crowe's body armor from Gladiator fetched $74,000, way above the predicted sale price.
A replica Roman chariot from the same movie went for nearly $50,000, far exceeding Sotheby's estimate of $7,700. "Something for the man cave," crowed the winner.
The violin Crowe played in Master and Commander was demonstrated before its sale. Per the Guardian, "As you would hope from a violin that ends up going for $135,000 (Australian), it sounds pretty bloody nice."

(Read more Russell Crowe stories.)