Betty White's Items On Display, Auction In Beverly Hills (Photos)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Iconic pieces from beloved late actress Betty White's life and career are on display and auction in Beverly Hills this week, including an original script for "The Golden Girls" pilot, the front door to White's Brentwood home and jewelry from her personal collection.

Betty White died on Dec. 31, 2021 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Her estate handed over some 1,600 personal items from throughout White's career and life including clothing, scripts, art, furniture and jewelry likely to attract bids from fans, collectors and museum curators alike.

The items are priced conservatively compared to Julien's Auctions previous celebrity auctions, which is what White would have wanted, said Martin J. Nolan, Executive Director and CFO of Julien's Auctions.

Bidding will likely bring the more reasonable, estimated prices way up, a price jump Nolan calls the "Betty White factor." Some items have already seen bids tens of thousands of dollars higher than their estimated price, according to Julien's website. Nolan said he wouldn't be surprised if the auction brought in between $1-2 million in total.

The most expensive item in the collection is White's most recent car, a 2000 Cadillac Seville STS Touring Sedan, estimated to be worth between $5,000-$7,000. Eight pre-auction bids brought the car's cost over $12,000.

"When you come to do an auction like this, you look at the items and you look at the intrinsic value. What are the items worth themselves? We don't know what the 'Betty White factor' is. That would be determined on the auction days," Nolan said. "You can't guess that... but we have good indication that Betty is highly collectible, highly loved and highly sought after."

Julien's Auctions previously handled estate auctions for celebrities such as Marylin Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Bob Hope.

The items were put on display Wednesday and Thursday for the general public at Julien's Auctions, located 257 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.

The live auction runs Friday through Sunday at Julien's Auctions and online at Julien's website.

Curators spent three weeks picking through White's Brentwood home and attempting to put together a display that would capture White's personality, accomplishments and legacy, Nolan said. Attendees should leave feeling like they spent time in White's house — even a visitor who had never heard of White would get an idea of who she was, Nolan said.

"What it does is tell the story, keeps her memory alive — this is her legacy," Nolan said. "We wanted to show her love of animals. We wanted to show her own nostalgia by including items that she had and she collected with her husband Allen. [We also included] items from her parents — her mother's artwork, a watch that was gifted to her from her mother in 1940."

Beyond highlighting her career accomplishments such as being the oldest person to host Saturday Night Live and a laundry list of awards, the curators were careful to also show off White's sense of humor and levity, Nolan said.

"She had an audience that was young and old, and she's still relevant, and she's still humorous. So we wanted to show her love of games. We wanted to show her humorous side as well — her whimsical side," Nolan said.

White didn't have her awards on display in her home, but Nolan and his team thought it was important to showcase her accomplishments, he said.

The auction has had an unbelievable response from the public and the Julien's Auctions team, nearly all of whom wanted to work on the White auction, Nolan said.

"It's been phenomenal. We've had the auction online for three weeks now — we've already received over 5,000 bids, which is phenomenal. I think we've never had an auction with such interest pre-auction. That's really telling," Nolan said.

The proceeds from the auction will go back to the Betty White estate, but Nolan anticipates the money will ultimately be donated given White's long history of humanitarianism and advocacy.

The Items

Check out highlights from the collection. Click on the photo to view the item online and see the current bid: