Synonymous with Hollywood glamor and style, Elizabeth Taylor’s life off-screen became as famed as her on-screen exploits. Now, the Oscar-winning star’s custom-built convertible car, nicknamed “the Green Goddess” is expected to fetch up to $2 million at a New York auction.
According to New York auction house Guernsey’s, which will host the sale next week, Taylor ordered the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead following her marriage to singer Eddie Fisher.
The car was painted a unique shade of “smoke green” at her request — a shade to match the green wedding dress she wore to marry Fisher.
Known by her fans as the “Green Goddess”, the car was delivered to The Pierre Hotel, where Taylor was living in New York, at Christmas.
In 1962 Taylor traveled to Rome to start filming for the big-budget epic “Cleopatra”, where she was cast in the starring role — traveling with husband Fisher and “the Green Goddess” in tow.
On the set of “Cleopatra”, Taylor began a love affair with co-star Richard Burton; according to Guernsey’s, Burton was spotted driving the car on several occasions in 1963. A year later, Taylor divorced Fisher and married Burton in what would become one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous romances.
She kept the car for around 20 years, before taking out an advert in the Wall Street Journal to sell the vehicle.
Bought and kept by a Californian fan for four decades, the car, which has been refurbished with a new top and leather seats, has only 40,000 miles on the clock, and “drives as a Silver Cloud should,” according to Guernsey’s.
Bids start at $400,000, but the Goddess is expected to fetch between $1 million and $2 million. The auction will take place at The Pierre Hotel — the very place where the car was first delivered to Taylor — next Tuesday.
