“So we could be absolutely sure it was authentic – and also unique.” “She explained it was constructed from an old set of her own bra and knickers,” says Hodgson. These high prices were testament to that most prized asset in memorabilia – cast-iron provenance. The two-piece certainly was: it was sold at Christie's for £41,125 in 2001, and later went under the hammer in 2020 for an estimated £360,000. “She’d come across her famous white cotton bikini from Dr No in the bottom drawer of her wardrobe, and wondered if it was something Bond enthusiasts might be interested in.” “It was Ursula Andress herself,” she recalled. But early Bond films were more slapdash – hence why, in 2001, Sarah Hodgson received an unexpected phone call at her desk in Christie’s. Today’s savvier movie companies painstakingly catalogue every prop or costume for auction later.

Which is why practically anything related to the Bond franchise has risen in value – and especially over the last two decades.” And it really is 'practically anything'… The Swimwear “Generations and generations have now seen the movies, making their blend of spies, women, gadgets and fast cars irresistible. “Unlike the other big movie franchises, Bond collectibles benefit from the marketing of a new movie every two or three years,” says film memorabilia expert and former Christie’s auctioneer Sarah Hodgson. Though Christopher Marinello is cagey about its exact location for fear of compromising its recovery, the stolen car casts a spotlight on the vast, shady and downright-strange market in Bond collectibles. Once driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger, the £18.2 million vehicle – complete with ejector seats, machine-guns and tyre-shredding blades (or at least prop versions) – has been located by a private investigator, according to The Most Famous Car In The World, a new podcast hosted by Elizabeth Hurley. Have you seen it? In a plot twist that would please Ian Fleming, it appears that a James Bond Aston Martin DB5, fliched from a Florida airfield in 1997, has re-surfaced – in the Middle East.

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